Paint The Sky With Stars
by Iellix
Summary: A continuation of "Other Halves." Share all of the laughs, thrills, antics, romances, and tears of our beloved characters as they make their way through their days. LeonYuffie, SoraKairi, CloudAerith, RikuZephyr
1. Paint the Sky With Stars

By popular demand, the VL is back with your favorite stories, your favorite characters, and, of course, your favorite couples! This functions like "Other Halves" did—a series of one-shot fics, although I don't know if they will be as long as the others were, but this time I might try my hand at a songfic or two, if I feel the need to. Once again, thanks so _very, very_ much to all of the people who reviewed "Other Halves" and turned Zephyr from a potential MS (frightening thought, ne?) into a pureblooded Kingdom Hearts character. And now, as I am prone to saying—

**On With The Show!**

Summary: It's a little over a year since "A Day Without Rain." Sora, Kairi, and Riku are now permanent residents of Traverse Town; Riku and Zephyr have located a place to live and moved in together; Zephyr no longer works for Cid, but is a leatherworker for one of the shops; Aerith and Cloud are happily married; Leon and Yuffie have become a bit more daring, since Yuffie is now twenty, and has long since come of age; a few new fuzzy, four-legged additions have come to the crew. Everyone has gone through their fair share of changes, but you know what they say—the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Since this is a new story, I'll start my vicious harassments over again; Squaresoft owns everything I use here, with the exception of Zephyr, Scout, and any other new faces that might pop up in my story. Got that? Good. Now shut up and read.

                                                                                                             ~*~

A man was taking a bag into the Waterway, wading knee-deep in the cool water to get to where the water level was higher. There was something inside the bag that was putting up a good fight—it did _not_ want to be in there.

          The man had thought that no one was about, but he was wrong. One person had seen him and followed by way of the rooftops and awnings over the shops, as silent and graceful as a leopard. Zephyr could seem to sense when things were not right. It got her into trouble more often than it didn't, but she was rarely wrong when she thought that someone was up to no good. This time would be no different.

          The nineteen-year-old landed silently on the ground and carefully followed the man into the Waterway. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw him securing the squirming bag with ropes. The bag, she discovered, was making noises—it sounded like crying. It took a minute to register in her mind that it sounded like very young puppies crying for their mother. A look of horror came over her face as the man picked the bag up and prepared to throw it into the water.

          "No!" Zephyr blew her cover as she shrieked like a banshee and darted out of her hiding place between two large rocks. She shoved the man over and grabbed the bag from him. A flip of a dagger opened the parcel, revealing four puppies, not any older than perhaps two weeks. They were still blind and helpless, and this man was going to drown them. She snatched herself back into reality and glared at him; he had a stunned look on his face, curious as to where she had come from.

          "What do you think yer _doing?"_ She hissed, clutching her precious cargo to her breast. The puppies squeaked a little.

          "Those dogs—the puppies—" the man could not form a whole sentence. He took a deep breath and tried again. "We didn't want those puppies. Our French poodle got pregnant and had the four damn ugliest puppies we'd ever seen. No one would _ever_ take them things in. Bet to put 'em outta their misery an' save 'em from that fate now."

          "By _drowning them?"_ Zephyr demanded. Long bangs fell over her eyes like a shaggy dog. She pushed them out of the way. "How d'you _know_ no one would want them?" She put her free hand on her hip and tried to look threatening, but at five feet tall, she was hardly the intimidating kind at first glance.

          "Well, juss _look_ at 'em," he nodded towards the bundle she held. The girl looked to the four puppies. He was right about one thing—they were ugly. Three had short, flat muzzles like a spaniel, and the fourth had a tapered muzzle like a poodle. All four were remarkably fluffy for such young puppies; two had very curly hair, and the other two had long hair that stood up every which way.

          "So you intend on killing them?" She asked.

          "Until you showed up."

          Zephyr stayed quiet for a minute. Finally, she spoke. "I'll take them. But don't drown them. How much would you ask for the four of them?" She wet her lips. "I have a little Munny, but not very much."

          The man stared at her. "N-nothing. You—if you want 'em, take 'em. I doubt anyone else would." He didn't seem to grasp why anyone would want these four puppies, particularly as their father was an unknown dog and could have had any number of diseases. He watched Zephyr's retreating back as she carried her prize out of the Waterway and into the Third District.

          The streets were not crowded—like usual. No one seemed to notice that she held a squirming bundle in her arms. She arrived at a house in the Third District and held the puppies carefully in one arm while she fumbled in her jeans for the key to the small house with the other. As soon as she opened the door, there seemed to be a greeting waiting for her. A great amount of fawn-colored fur and a wet nose came at her, stopped just short of crushing her bundle.

          Scout, Leon's enormous dog, was dragged back by his bright red leather collar, held by a twenty-year-old Yuffie. She struggled to hold the behemoth dog steady as Zephyr walked in and shut the door behind her. Sitting at the table in the middle of the room was Kairi, leaning over to see what she was holding.

          "What's up?" The redhead asked as her friend skirted the dog and sat on the floor by the table. She set the puppies down, revealing all four of them. They moved about blindly, and one yawned.

          "Oh my God!" Yuffie exclaimed, kneeling to get a better look. Scout came closer, as well, intrigued. "No! Scout, go sit!" She steered the animal away before coming back to look at the puppies. Kairi, too, sat down on the floor and fawned over them, despite their pronounced ugliness.

          "Where'd you find them?" She whispered, reaching out to touch one. "I _can_ pet one, right?" She asked. She knew that Zephyr could get testy about animals, particularly her piebald draught gelding, Moonriver, and her red roan Welsh pony mare. (The mare had turned up in the magician's study two weeks after her eighteenth birthday. It was suspected that Riku had had something to do with her appearance.)

          "No, you can pet 'em," Zephyr said. "I—some guy was gonna drown 'em in the Waterway."

          "What?" Yuffie's head shot up. "Why would anyone wanna do that to a buncha helpless little puppies?" Her face showed genuine shock. She petted one with two fingers—the puppies were large for their age. One of them was a little bigger than the ninja's hand.

          "People do that…" Zephyr said with a heavy sigh. "If there's too many or if they're unwanted or they're sick, people put them in sacks and drown them. In this case, they were unwanted." She sighed. She took a glance over at Scout, and then looked cautiously back at the puppies. One of them had his exact fur color. And the three with small, flatter muzzles looked a little bit like him, except for the one that had curly fur. "Hey…" she murmured. "They look like Scout!"

          "They—_what?"_ Yuffie looked back and forth rapidly, trying to see any similarities. Zephyr was right—the puppies _did_ resemble Scout. "You didn't happen to find out exactly _who_ the father of these babies is, did you?" She asked cautiously.

          "That's just it," Zephyr said, picking one puppy up and putting him in her lap. "The guy said that he didn't know who the sire was. Just his wife's French poodle got knocked up one day, and that they didn't want to keep the puppies."

          "Wouldn't the mother go totally mad?" Kairi asked. She was holding two of the puppies, and Yuffie had the other one.

          "Yea, but I guess they _really_ didn't want these guys." She sighed. "It's like some prude family trying to keep their daughters virgins until they get married and explain the facts of life the morning before the wedding."

          Both of the other girls blinked at her.

          "People din' actually _do_ that, did they?" Yuffie asked.

          "Do what?"

          "Force their kids to stay—" she paused. "To stay _chaste_ until marriage and not tell them exactly what's supposed to happen on the wedding night until that _morning?"_

          "Well—yea. Humans are control freaks with their kids," Zephyr replied.

          "That's so _weird,"_ Kairi shook her head and looked down at the puppies.

          "You'd think they'd've figured it out by then," Yuffie added.

          "I dunno—humans can also be pretty dumb," Zephyr said. "They have to be _told_ how to reproduce. All other animals know it already. Although you might wonder—does that knowledge come with acne and the other wonders of puberty?"

          Kairi gave a loud snort and rolled onto the ground laughing. Now Scout was too curious to follow orders. He waltzed right over and put his nose up to a puppy to sniff. He nudged it a little, and then picked it up in his mouth and carried it onto a rug. He did the same with the rest of them, until the litter was all together on a rug, and he lay down with them.

          "Imagine that!" Yuffie looked at the dog sitting with the small litter of puppies. "Scout's a father!"

          Zephyr frowned. "Where's Leon, anyway? It's _his_ dog—why's he not lookin' after him?"

          "He's with Cid," the ninja replied. "Dunno anything beyond that, but I don't wanna pry. That would get on his nerves, and I would rather save his last nerve for something really worth prying into." It never really took much to get on the last nerve of Squall Leonheart. He had a short temper and would go off at the slightest thing—but not with Yuffie, or with Kairi or Aerith. He was still a gentleman and didn't want to hit girls—although the ornery Zephyr was another matter all together. They were at each other's throats much of the time.

          "Yeh gonna tell 'im about the puppies?" The girl asked, pushing too-long bangs out of her face.

          "I'd have to, wouldn't I?" Yuffie asked. "He'd find out eventually."

          "We'd best get some milk for them, though," Zephyr said, holding back a grin as one brave puppy searched for teats to suckle from. It did not seem to notice that Scout was a male.

          She and Yuffie volunteered Kairi to go into the First District and get milk and four bottles for the puppies, with the instructions to use any excuse that she damn well pleased. Upon her return, she had brought Aerith. The Flower Girl hadn't been into the girl's hideaway in some time. Now that she was married, much of her time was spent with Cloud, and her younger friends couldn't help but feeling slightly abandoned by their companion. But, evidently, the prospect of very young puppies was enough to pry her from her husband and bring her back into the small house.

          "Aww, they're so _little!"_ She exclaimed, keeping her voice low. "How old are they?"

          Zephyr went into the story of how she had attained them, and added that she guessed the puppies were two weeks old, give or take a few days. Still blind, they would be totally helpless for another week [A/N: Just a guess on my part… all I know are horses.] and it was an instinct of all females to look after helpless young.

          "That's cruel!" Aerith had one puppy—the only male—wrapped up in a towel and was feeding him from a bottle. He was the one with the tapered muzzle, so positioning a bottle so that he could drink from it proved to be no easy task. Eventually, she switched with Zephyr, who managed to get the puppy to drink without bending his nose.

          "So… what're we gonna do with them?" Yuffie asked, watching the now full puppies call asleep all over one another.

          "Well… I dunno. I doubt that you and Leon could have time or patience or the know-how to take care of them," Zephyr said with a shrug, and then put her arms up to block a hit from Yuffie. She sat up again. "I guess I could take them until they're older. By then, maybe the ugliness would've gone away some and people will give them good homes…" she trailed off. "But I wanna keep one, as well."

          "Who's stopping you?" Kairi asked.

          "I dunno… I don't know if Riku would want it or not," she sighed.

          Her three companions smirked. Her love for Riku was stronger than her love for animals, and for Zephyr, that was definitely saying something. She was willing to give up taking in one of the puppies for good if it upset Riku, although nothing would change her mind about wanting to rear them until they were old enough to be adopted.

          Kairi spoke again. "I don't see why he'd say anything about it," she said. "He had a dog for the longest time. Most of his life, actually."

          Zephyr sat up. "Really? He never told me that."

          "Well, he'd had it since he was born, and it died when he was eleven. I guess he wouldn't talk about it much."

          "So he might not mind if I kept one?" She looked very hopeful. She took a sidelong glance at the female puppy with curly fur (the male was the other one with curly fur) and smiled crookedly.

          "Aww, you could be like a little family!" Aerith teased. She looked down at Zephyr as a mother would look down at a four-year-old who had done something for the first time.

          "Shush," she hissed. Her cheeks burned scarlet.

          "What?" The Flower Girl asked. "You never thought about having a family?"

          Zephyr burst out laughing and rolled on the floor. A few seconds later, she sat back up and looked at Aerith.

          "I guess that was a no?" She asked.

          "I jammed up all the gears in my biological clock a _long_ time ago, sweets," she said dryly. "And besides, that's the _last _thing that this world needs."

          "What's that?" Yuffie asked.

          "More of me."

          "Oh, come _on,"_ Kairi had joined now. "You can't know for _sure."_

          "I know fer sure all right that I never want kids. If I dun want 'em now and I'm nineteen years old, then there's little chance of me wanting them any time in the future."

          "So I guess menopause is lookin' awfully good to you right now, huh?" Yuffie asked without cracking a smile as the other three fought giggles.

          That was how it was in that little house. The door was locked and the curtains were drawn, ensuring that no one would look in on them. There was a fire in the fireplace and tea on the table in the middle of the room. The puppies slept in their laps as they sat on the floor and talked until they lost track of time.

They used to get into a fair amount of trouble for doing this—they still did, sometimes, if someone caught them. But Yuffie was older now, and no one could get on her back about being too young, or on Leon's back about him being too old for her. She was twenty, and he was twenty-eight. It was the same age difference that they had always had; only now it didn't seem so bad because she had come of age. [A/N: I can justify this in saying that no one ever specified birthdays, so I'm going along with Yuffie turning twenty before Leon turns twenty-nine. That way the age gap closes a smidge.]

          Since the hotel was a relatively busy place, they had found an empty room somewhere in the heart of the Second District. Yuffie held a handful of long brown hair in one hand; the other was over his shoulder and holding onto his jacket.

          Yuffie whimpered for a second and pulled away. Leon looked down at her, puzzled.

          "What's wrong?"

          "I bit your necklace," she said, removing her hand from her mouth. The metal had hurt her teeth. Two seconds later, they were attached at the lips again. One of his hands fumbled clumsily and frantically with the fastenings on the front of her shirt to get it open.

          "What are you wearing under this?" He asked as he finally managed to get the shirt open without ripping the buttons off.

          "I'm not," she whispered back. She wasn't lying—with the exception of undergarments, of course.

          "That you been like that all day?" He asked. She nodded. "Damn…"

          She had her head thrown back to give him access to her neck when she looked back towards the door nervously.

          "Did you hear that?" She asked. She could barely hear him make a reply that he hadn't heard it. "I think someone's outside—" She stopped as her legs buckled some beneath her. He'd gotten to the bare skin on her stomach and it shot electric jolts up her spine. By now her shirt was on the floor and she was going quite limp. Leon stopped for a moment and looked at her with a grin plastered on his face.

          "What was it you were saying?" He asked smugly.

          "I forgot," she whispered, and pulled him back.

          Another close call made them realize that perhaps the hotel was the safest place for them to be, since they could lock their doors there, and at least there was a bed instead of a dusty wooden floor. There was still the threat of Aerith or Cloud walking in on them, as it had happened before as well as the other way around. Things were quite awkward for a while once Yuffie had found out that her innocent Flower Girl friend was not so innocent after all, and when Aerith had found out that her teenaged friend had been at it hammer and tongs with Leon.

          They managed to slip out of the hiding place unnoticed and got back to the hotel, hands still laced together. On their way back, Leon was pleased to note a man watching them, whom he had recognized as Parraz, glaring at them but unable to do anything about their relationship now that Yuffie was twenty years old.

          They woke up some time later, hearing Cloud and Aerith next door. Yuffie nudged her lover as she bumbled around getting some clothes on. When he finally showed signs of life, she tossed his pants at him.

          "They're back next door—I suggest you put on some clothes," she told him, and then tossed him his shirt as well. He groaned.

          "Always at the least convenient times, too," he said as he forced himself to sit up. "I _long_ to get Strife back for this."

          "We _have!" She said. "We've walked in on them about as many times as they've walked in on __us." She paused again. Leon hadn't moved. "Fer goodness sake—put some shorts on at least!"_

          "Why?"

          She sighed heavily. "Okay, fine. If you dun mind if they walk in on you completely naked, that's your business." She walked out of their room and waited outside the door, counting backwards from ten. When she got to three, the door burst open and he dragged her back inside.

          The door closed and he pushed her against it and crushed her lips with his. They would probably get in trouble if anyone caught them, but neither cared. Clothes had started dropping to the floor again when there was a knock at the door. Both froze. Yuffie was looking towards the door but took a glance at Leon. The expression on his face was a mix of fear and anger at whoever had disturbed them. He leaned to Yuffie.

          "Pretend we aren't here," he whispered. She nodded slowly and held her breath. She wanted to get back to what they were doing.

          "I ain't fallin' fer that one!" The voice, unexpectedly, belonged to Cid. "Yer both in there, now get some clothes on an' open this door or else I'll get Riku to pick the lock whether yer dressed or not."

          Growling and bristling, they scrounged up their clothes and let him in. "This'd better be good," Leon hissed. Cid kept his humorless expression, despite the disheveled look of the pair and the twisted bedclothes and Leon missing one of his several belts.

          "Don't worry, kid you can get back to bein' a pair of bunnies later. I needa talk to you." The pilot dragged him away, despite verbal protests and some fairly colorful language from Yuffie. Defeated, she screwed up her face and prepared to leave the hotel. She collided with Aerith on her way.

          "Hey! Watch where yer goin'!" She yelled before she realized who it was. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't see you—" she began, but then she noticed that Cloud wasn't on her friend's heels like he usually was. "Where's Cloud?"

          "Fighting invisible enemies in the Third District," Aerith replied. "I decided to let him be."

          "Squall does that sometimes, too, in the Waterway," Yuffie said. "The only real 'enemies' around here are boredom and bad dreams. I dun think you can fight those with a sword." She paused. "No, I take that back. The guys like dueling one another, but fer _us…"_

          "There's always the little house."

          "Or the café."

          Pause.

          "Shall we?" Yuffie asked, holding the door open.

          "Yes—lets." Aerith grinned and walked out with her friend. Since neither had remembered their key to the house where the girls would gather to get away from everything, they instead headed for the café and sat down in a booth. The small café had been busy the past few weeks, but today, there was nobody in it. The man at the bar smiled at them as they walked in—they were regulars and he knew who they were.

          Yuffie sighed as she leaned back and looked around at the walls. People had donated photographs, paintings, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, and other things that now lined the walls and were held up on shelves. A few photographs were of their group—herself, Aerith, Kairi, Zephyr, Leon, Cloud, Sora, Riku, and Cid. The differences in the pictures were more and more conspicuous as the pictures went further back in time. The oldest one was from before Zephyr had shown up. The most recent had an image of the girl snuggled up close to Riku.

          "D'you know how _long_ it is since we've been here?" The ninja asked absently.

          "A long time," Aerith answered. "A really long time." She, too, was looking at the pictures. One had a seventeen-year-old Yuffie in it alongside Leon. Yuffie was now twenty.

          Yuffie nudged her suddenly, jerking her head to a booth at the other side of the café. Aerith looked, and her lips curved into a smile; they had been wondering where Sora and Kairi had wandered off. The pair had taken advantage of the fact that the café had been empty. Kairi was smothered beneath Sora's body, a few articles of their clothing discarded and tossed onto the floor or draped over the table.

          "How long do we watch 'em for?" Yuffie barely whispered to her friend.

          "Until they get down to their underwear. Then we either stop watching, or let them know we're here and see if they go on."

          "You actually think that they would go on if they knew we were watching?" The ninja asked, still not taking her eyes off of the fairly racy scene in front of them. Sora was down to his jeans and Kairi was down to her bra and her skirt.

          "You'd think that if they were desperate enough to go at it in a café, that they really wouldn't care if someone watched."

          "Would you?" She received no answer. _"Would_ you?"

          "Maybe."

          At this, Yuffie had to squeal, and then immediately covered her mouth with her hands. Did Aerith just admit to doing "things" in _public?_

          Both Sora and Kairi had heard the squeal and stopped what they were doing immediately. Both burned scarlet with humiliation as they looked about for the peepers and pulled their discarded garments back on.

          "You guys!" Kairi yelled across the café. The man at the bar didn't look up—he was used to these exchanges between the friends. Yelling at one another was their odd way of saying, 'I just love you to bits.'

          "How long have you been here?" Sora demanded. It took him a second to realize that he had put his shirt on both inside out and backwards. He pulled it off and started again. Kairi was glaring daggers at her friends.

          "I hate you both," she said solemnly, but there was an edge of humor in her voice. After so long together, there was nothing anyone could say or do that would make the others angry at them for very long.

          "Oh, come off it," Yuffie said. "There's plenty of places for you to go at it hammer and tongs—good God, I sound like Zephyr." She buried her face in her hands and laughed at herself. "Hammer and tongs" was a phrase that their sarcastic friend used.

          The couple left them there in the café—they had obviously had something planned—and not long after, it began to pour. Rain beat against the windows and people outside scurried around to get to where it was dry.

          "Think we'll need to swim back to the hotel?" Yuffie asked, watching the rain pelt the windows as raindrops slowly got bigger and bigger, and became hailstones. Somebody outside came barraging in and stood at the door for a moment, dripping on the floor.

          "Hello, Riku," Aerith said. Riku lifted his silver hair away from his face with the back of his hand and his wrist. "Did you have a nice swim?"

          "Funny," the silver-haired young man said. He shook like a wet dog and pulled his coat off. "Zephyr's not here, is she?"

          "Not that we know."

          "Shit."

          "Hey, we're not yer girlfriend's keeper, Riku! You should just tag her," Yuffie said.

          "Hmm—yeh know, that's not such a bad idea…"

          The door flew open again, missing Riku by about two inches. A figure in a blue cloak leaped in and closed the door. The hood fell down, revealing a small face and gray eyes. Riku's face lit up immediately. Zephyr noticed this and winked up at him coyly before sliding her too-heavy-with-rain cloak off and hanging it to dry.

          Thunder crashed and she collided with her love, eyes wide in fear. Old as she was now, she was still frightened of thunderstorms. Riku knew this—he was also the only person who could successfully calm her frazzled nerves during a storm. She was as jumpy as a frightened horse.

          "Why's it always rain here like this?" She asked, pouting. Lightning flashed and she froze to her spot. The thunder didn't come for almost a full minute, and it was very muffled.

          "I'm not sure, but if it _keeps_ raining, yer probably gonna have to learn how to swim cuz the town will be submerged in water," Riku teased. Zephyr narrowed her eyes at him and started to walk away, but he grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her back. "Come back here—you know I was only teasing you."

          Zephyr closed her eyes and turned away from him. Her charade of being angry at him worked for another two minutes before thunder rumbled again and she wrapped herself around him, shivering.

          "Where've you been all day, anyway?" Riku asked her, pulling away from her enough so that he could see her face clearly.

          "I never left our room," she admitted. When he raised his eyebrows at her, she defended herself. "Four puppies can be demanding! But they're almost old enough to be adopted." Pause. "Are we still keeping one?"

          "Of course."

          Thunder crashed again and the door opened. It knocked Zephyr over. Two soaking wet figures came stampeding into the café. Leon and Cloud were revealed when Leon's coat and Cloud's cloak were removed.

          "Maybe we should get outta the doorway so we don't get stepped on," Riku whispered once Zephyr was on her feet again. She nodded and laced her hand with his as they found a booth in the corner where they could be alone.

          "You guys look like drowned ducks," Aerith commented as she and Yuffie made way for their men to sit.

          "You 'aven't been outside since it started raining, have you?" Leon asked in a monotone voice. "We're walkin' up to our ankles in water."

          "Well, actually, it wasn't _that_ high out there, but it was still pretty bad," Cloud said. "There's hailstones the size of grapes." He rubbed his head.

          A little while later, the storm had gotten progressively worse, and the power had gone out, leaving the six of them in the dark.

          "Grand," said a very dry voice. "I can't see my hand in front of my face." It was Zephyr.

          "Actually—that's _my_ hand," Riku said.

          "Sorry."

          "We really gotta get better power generators if they go out like this every time we have a storm," Cloud muttered. "Wandering around in the dark is hard."

          "Well, it isn't _totally_ dark," Yuffie said. "I think I can almost see an outline of something—or maybe not. I dunno, I can't tell."

          Since nobody wanted to go outside in a thunderstorm, they stayed in the café that night. Come morning, three men woke up expecting to find a woman next to them—instead, the girls had left and they were alone.

          "Hey—where'd they skip off to?" Riku asked. He rolled a little too far on his seat and hit the floor. "Ow."

          "You mean the girls?" The owner asked. He hadn't opened the café yet and was reading a newspaper at one of the tables.

          "No, the Swedish Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team," Cloud's voice was full of sarcasm.

          Riku rolled his eyes. "Well, did you at least see where Zephyr went?" He asked.

          "Which one was she?"

          "The smallest one with long black hair."

          "Well, they all left at the same time about half an hour ago. Can't tellya where they went, though." The man hadn't looked up from his paper the entire time that they were talking.

          "Why in hell not?" Leon demanded.

          "Cuz I dunno where they went."

"Look at us—we're a bunch of rational, relatively well-educated, worldly young women, and yet we find it necessary to avoid our own lovers—or spouses. What does this _say_ about us as people?" Zephyr asked.

          "That we're smart enough to keep the good ice cream for ourselves?" Kairi suggested.

          "Here, here," Yuffie said, raising the carton of ice cream like a glass in a toast.

          "I suppose that's an answer," Zephyr said. "But they're not gonna be too happy once they find out we're missing."

          "How long d'you think it'll take 'em to figure it out?" Yuffie asked.

          "Until they wake up, I guess."

          Aerith sat on the floor, playing with the four rapidly growing puppies. The one that Zephyr was intent on keeping was the female with curly hair. She bumbled about, still clumsy on too-large paws. 

          "When will they be old enough for those people to take home?" She asked. A few people had seen the puppies and made arrangements to take them home as soon as they were old enough.

          "Really soon," Zephyr said with a sigh. "Sandy, come here." The little curly puppy came bouncing over to her and jumped in her lap.

          "'Sandy'?" Kairi asked. "That's original." She was sarcastic, of course.

          "Well, lets see _you_ think of a better name," she snapped. When Kairi didn't answer, Zephyr nodded in satisfaction. "Thought so."

          "That's weird," Yuffie said.

          "What's weird?" The redhead tilted her head to one side.

          "Four years ago, you two couldn't _stand_ each other, and now yer friends. Kind of."

          Kairi and Zephyr looked at one another and shrugged. "I guess we juss got used to each other. Either that, or we've just given up," Zephyr said. Kairi grinned.

          "I think we've just given up."

                                                                                                   ~*~

'The time has come,' 

_The Walrus said._

'To talk of many things…' 

                                                                                                   ~*~

I know, this is the absolute _shortest_ Zephyr story that I have ever written, but I had to get the next season off the ground _somehow._ Anyway, I can make it up to you, because I already have very good ideas for _three more_ parts to this story. (Unfortunately, one of 'em involves a new character. Let me know how you feel about that, because she would be a vital part of another story as well as her own debut story.)

And how d'you guys feel about a ballroom-type story? I know everyone does those in which the girls get dressed up and the guys coat the floor in a steady layer of drool, but there's no telling what could happen if Leon saw Yuffie all nice and dressed up, and Riku saw Zephyr all nice and dressed up… after all, Zephyr's not been nailed yet.            


	2. A Rose Has Her Thorns

Ech, okay, would someone please explain to me something? Why is the Leon/Yuffie pairing wrong (as it gets flamed, although I have been lucky and I haven't gotten flamed…yet), but the Leon/Sora, Cloud/Sora, and Sora/Donald pairings are all okay? Lets think about that for a second—Sora's what… fourteen come the end of Kingdom Hearts? Leon is _twenty-five._ Now, I know I'm not really good in math, and I never really made it past third grade math class without having to fight the grading curriculum tooth and nail, but I _think_ that that is a wider gap than sixteen and twenty-five. Lets weight that for a sec. Eleven-year difference… nine-year difference. I would say that the nine-year one is a tad less than the eleven-year one. Same thing with Cloud, although I think he may be a little younger than Leon… I am not entirely sure. But _still!_ I don't think I'd mind that kind of an age gap if Sora was older, but he's younger than I am! Isn't that a tad… delicate, for lack of a better word? And don't get me started on Donald Duck. Donald Duck is in his late forties, early fifties, I think, and not to mention—_he's a freakin' duck!_ (Sorry, Donald. I like ya and all, but not when yer romantically involved with a fourteen-year-old human kid. Human _boy._ With whom you did not originally get along.) All righty, people, I have nothing at all against shounen-ai pairings, but if yer gonna do that, _at least consider ages and put them somewhere marginally appropriate!_ And within the same species would be nice, as well.

Okay, I think I'm done with that for a while. I just had to get that out of my system because L/Y gets flamed all the time, but none of the others do. (That I know of. There are fewer strait-pairing stories on this site than there are sh-ai or whatever you might call the S/D pairing.)

Summary: There's one in every town—the unbelievably rich family that throws their daughter a Sweet Sixteen in the Ballroom of a five-star hotel, catered by the same catering company that the state Governor uses, live band that charges a three-figure sum per _hour,_ and a custom-tailored dress. Traverse certainly has its rich-bitch, and she's turning sixteen. There's a Ballroom rented out and a huge party and _everyone's_ invited! Only thing left to say is this: This oughtta be good.

If you want a disclaimer, I'm afraid I'm gonna hafta charge you shipping and handling, as well. And you must provide generous compensation for your own ignorance.

                                                                                                             ~*~

_Beware, for the fairest Rose has her Thorns._

                                                                                                             ~*~

"What kind of an idiot would want that kind of attention?" Zephyr peered over Aerith's shoulder at the invitation to a huge party. "If it happened to me, it'd set me back on a soft diet."

          "Coming from someone who is known to eat her weight in food in a day, that is saying _quite_ a lot," Yuffie retorted. She, too, was looking at the invitation. She screwed up her face some—fancy parties meant that they needed to go in fancy clothes, which she did not own.

          "When is it?" Kairi was also trying to look at the invitation, but with Yuffie leaning over Aerith's right shoulder, and Zephyr on her left, the only place she could look was over the top of the Flower Girl's head.

          Aerith looked at the invitation. "A week. That doesn't give us much time to get dresses and make up and whatever else we might need."

          "Excuse me?" Zephyr raised her eyebrows. "Who's 'us'?"

          "The four of us, unless—hey, wait a second, you aren't backing out, are you?" Green eyes went wide in shock.

          "No, I'm not backing out," Zephyr said. "I never agreed to go in the first place. How can I back out if I never said I would to begin with?"

          "Damn, she's good," Yuffie said, keeping her voice low.

          "So you _are_ coming," Kairi said, trying to sort out the confusion.

          "I didn't say that."

          _"Good Lord, girl, are you coming or not?"_ Aerith demanded. She'd finally snapped.

          "Not if I can help it," Zephyr said with a shrug.

          "What about you, Yuffie?" Kairi turned to the ninja.

          "I guess I'll go if Squall goes. Which he might not." She was hoping that Leon would _not_ want to go to this fancy party. He was never comfortable with big crowds. She didn't have a problem with the crowd—it was the dressing up part that got her.

          "What if he doesn't go?" Aerith asked.

          "Then we have the town to ourselves for a while cuz you guys will all be at that party. 'Cept Zephyr."

          "And if he _does _go?"

          No answer.

          "Yuffie?" She waved a hand in front of her friends' face.

          "Huh?"

          "What if Leon _does_ go?"

          "Then—I guess I'll go with him." She shrugged.

          "What'll you wear?" Kairi asked.

          "Does it even matter?" She asked, trying to dismiss the issue of clothing.

          "Well, yea, it does matter," Aerith moved to sit on the floor next to her. "You're going to want to look nice, won't you?"

          "Doesn't matter to me."

          "You're so indifferent."

          While they were talking clothes with Yuffie, Zephyr slipped out of the house and back into the Third District.

          "You know, just in case, we ought to take you shopping for a dress."

          "What if I end up not going?"

          "You'll go."

          Zephyr un-tethered her little red Welsh pony. She'd named the mare "Vermillion" for her red roan fur color. The pony wore a deep purple blanket saddle with a white design at the ends and a leather bridle with braided reins. Short little legs picked up speed, sending them into a smooth canter; hoofbeats echoed off of the walls.

          Not far off, a silver-haired figure sat on an overturned barrel, head bent over something. Zephyr grinned and nudged Vermillion on. She knew who it was.

          "Hey, Riku," she said when she had gotten close enough. He looked up from a slip of paper and looked up to see Zephyr parked in front of him. "Whatcha reading? Anything good?"

          "An invitation I got," he said, sounding a little confused. "Dunno who sent it or anything, but apparently there's gonna be some huge party in about a week." He flipped the invitation over, but there was nothing on the other side. "Weird."

          "I know it is," Zephyr said, sliding off of her pony. "There was one in the letterbox at the little house in the Third District. Aerith noticed it before we went in." She sighed. "You intend on going?"

          "Probably," Riku said. "What about you?"

          "I—don't think so."

          "How come?"

          "Not my thing."

          "What if I asked you to come with me?"

          Zephyr wet her lips, and then couldn't help but smile. "If you asked me to go with you? Then I'd go." She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"Guysguysguysguysguysguysguys!" Zephyr made a frantic run for the door to the small house, hoping that her friends would be there. She needed to see about borrowing clothes from someone because she owned nothing suitable for a fancy party. She fumbled with her keys and flung the door open, missing Yuffie by only inches. She turned to see puzzled expressions on three faces.

          "What?" She asked.

          "Is everything okay?" Aerith asked. 

          "Well, yea. Kinda. Sorta…"

          "What do you need?"

          "I gotta borrow some clothes from someone," she said.

          "What the hell for?" Kairi asked, confused.

          "I need something for that party, but I don't have any clothes that aren't ripped, stained, or hopelessly worn."

          "I thought you said you weren't going," Kairi said.

          "I said I wouldn't go if I could help it—this I have no control over," she replied tartly.

          "Whatcha mean?" Yuffie asked, tilting her head to one side.

          Zephyr turned pink and looked down. "Riku asked me to go with him."

          The ninja smacked her forehead. "He's got some kind of an amazing, supernatural power over you!"

          "Yes, it's called 'love,'" Aerith told her. She turned back to Zephyr. "Why don't you come with us? We're all going shopping for dresses."

          "Well, actually, _they're_ going shopping for dresses," Yuffie said. "I've been abducted and am begin taken against my will. Care to be an abductee with me?" She said sweetly without cracking a smile.

          "A dress?" Zephyr asked, looking uncomfortable.

          "Yes, this is a fancy occasion," Kairi said. "You have a problem with it?"

          "Well, kinda. I've not worn a dress in fifteen years." She sighed. "There any way I can get away with wearing jeans?"

          "No," Aerith said.

          "Pants suit?"

          "No." That was Kairi.

          "Jeans under the dress?"

          "No," both said at the same time.

          "What about—"

          _"No!"_

          "Okay, okay, I get the picture. I have to dress like a girl," she sighed heavily. "Haven't done that in a _very_ long time."

          Yuffie and Zephyr dragged behind their companions as they walked past Second District shops. Aerith finally went into one shop with some fancy dresses in the window. Looking at them made Zephyr feel slightly uneasy.

          "Hey, Aerith—how d'you expect me to pay for a dress like these?" She asked. "I'm a leatherworker—it's not the highest-paying job in the world you know."

          "Don't worry about that right now, all right?" The Flower Girl said absently, looking through a rack of pink dresses. Kairi had disappeared somewhere as soon as they had stepped over the threshold.

          "Aerith, why are you looking at pink dresses? You always wear pink—why doncha try something else?"

          Aerith grinned. "Who said it was for me? It could be for you, you know."

          "What? Nuh-uh. Not a pink dress, and nothing strapless, either—I have nothing to hold it up with unless I used staples or tape." Her friend had already picked a dress up—powder pink with very thin straps and a wide skirt with several layers. "Do I have to?"

          "Humor me."

          Yuffie was having a little more luck, but not much. She had picked up four dresses after nearly an hour of looking, probably due to the fact that she and Zephyr had been together and were talking most of the time rather than looking for a dress. The dresses that Yuffie had picked up were very simple ones—one was silvery and strapless with a wide, layered skirt; one was a low-cut sleeveless black one; one was scarlet with bare shoulders and flowing sleeves; the last one was dark blue washed silk.

          Kairi had quickly found almost too many dresses to carry, most of which were blues, purples, or indigo to match her eyes, although one was pink and another one was cream-colored. Half were strapless, and the other half had various sleeves. Two of them were short and the rest were all floor-length. Aerith, too, had found her fair share of "possibles." Three were various shades of pink; the other three were a light blue one, a black one, and a white one that could easily have passed for a wedding gown. None of hers, Zephyr noticed, were strapless. Aerith must have let her lady-ness take over.

          "So, exactly _how many_ dresses did you pick up?" Yuffie asked through a changing room door.

          "Eight," Kairi answered.

          "What? Eight dresses?" She widened her eyes "Good God yer only gonna pick _one_ of 'em, and there's not much chance of us going to another party like this—there's not a whole lot of them held around here."

          "What if someone gets married?" Kairi asked smugly as she came out wearing a royal blue dress that only came to her knees.

          "Like who?" The ninja demanded.

          "Oh, I dunno—a certain ninja and a certain swordsman, perhaps?" The girl said coyly. Yuffie turned bright red. Kairi went back into the changing room and tried a different one. It was a half-hour before she'd finally settled on a deep rose-colored strapless dress that came to the floor. It fit snugly from the waist up, and blossomed into a long skirt. The rest were discarded.

          Aerith went next. (They wanted to get opinions from the other three, so they went one at a time.) She had tried on her three pink ones first when Yuffie spoke up.

          "If you really want my advice, I'd give it, but seeing as I'm no expert, mine is prob'ly not the best advice."

          "What is it?" Aerith asked.

          "Don't wear pink. You've favored pink ever since we were little, and I think it'd be nice to see you wearing something other than pink for a change."

          Her companion raised her eyebrows. After trying her remaining three dresses, she tried on of Kairi's reject dresses, and it suited her better than the others had. It was a bright royal purple that tied behind her neck and left most of her back bare. It shocked all three of them—their Flower Girl was wearing something that exposed skin!

          Yuffie was next, despite her protests. The silver one she tried first she didn't even come out for them to see. She decided right away that she didn't like it. The blue washed silk dress was loose, not clingy like the others that the other girls had tried.

          "I like it," she said, spinning and making the skirts fan out.

          "But it's so loose!" Aeirth protested. 

          "What's your point?"

          "Why not try something fitting?"

          "Because I like this one!"

          "At least try the other two."

          With a huff, Yuffie went back and tried the black dress, and decided that she didn't like it because it was far too low.

          "It looks nice on you," Aerith said.

          "But it's uncomfortable. I don't think I like this one." She started to go back into the dressing room.

          "So what? You can still wear it if it's uncomfortable."

          "No—that's stupid."

          "You'll be out of it in a few hours, anyway," she offered. "Even sooner because it's low-cut."

          It took Yuffie about three seconds to figure out what her friend meant by this. When she did, she gasped. _"Aerith!_ You aren't thinking that—ah, the hell with it. Yer probably right, anyway." She turned for the dressing room.

          "So it's the black one, then?"

          "Nope. I don't care _how_ quickly it'll get me under the sheets—it's still uncomfortable!"

          The fourth one—the scarlet one, she took her time with admiring before she stepped out. This one she liked the best. She hadn't thought that red would be her color, but it turned out to be very nice on her. The sleeves were long, but sheer, and her shoulders were bare.

          "What do you think?" She asked. She intended on taking this one no matter what anyone said, but they all seemed all right with it.

          All that was left was Zephyr—reluctantly, she took her three dresses—the pink one Aerith gave her, a silvery one similar to the one Yuffie had picked up, except with straps, and a blood-red one with half-length, loose sleeves.

          When she went into the dressing room and slung her jeans over the door, they were too heavy and slid off the other side.

          "Could someone get those please?" She called, slipping into the pink one first to get it over with.

          Aerith picked the girl's jeans up and was shocked at how heavy they were.

          "Zephyr, your jeans must weight at _least_ ten pounds!" She sighed. "At least now I know why they ride so low!" She started to dig in the front pocket and pulled out various items, saying them out loud as she put them on a chair. "Piece of a broken comb; two buttons; three Munny gems; four rubber bands; two pieces of paper; gum; stub of a pencil; broken green crayon; eraser; leather scrap; sugar cube…"

          "All of that from one pair of pants?" Kairi asked, astonished.

          "All of that from one _pocket!"_ Aerith corrected.

          "Keep going—all the good stuff's in the side pockets," Zephyr called.

          Aerith tipped the pants upside-down, and a pile of items rarely found in the pockets of people's pants fell onto the floor.

          "Screwdriver; stapler; roll of masking tape; yuck—cookie crumbs; dead batteries; broken pocketknife; two pens; glass shard; the wire from a spiral notebook; staples; keys from a broken keyboard; shoelace—care to tell me _why_ you carry all of this stuff in your pockets?" She demanded as the door opened and Zephyr stepped out.

          "Because I'm lazy," she replied. The pink dress didn't suit her at all, although Kairi said that she looked "cute" in it. Zephyr scurried back into the room and tried the other two dresses on, neither of which worked on her.

          She got back into the room and noticed something folded up on the bench. She hadn't noticed it before and picked it up. It was a dark green dress, dull and velvety instead of shiny like the other dresses had all been. She figured that, since her luck was non-existent, she would try it on.

          The dress came up about an inch and a half on her throat and fastened in the back, leaving arms, shoulders, and half of her back bare. There was only one skirt to this dress, and it hung straight to the floor with a beaded pattern on the hem, which matched the beaded pattern on the throat. When she spun, it didn't fan out but rather just swirled around her legs. Cautiously, she stepped out of the dressing room.

          After a few minutes of scrutiny, Yuffie said, "That one looks good on you. You should take it."

          "She looked cute in the pink one," Kairi murmured.

          "Shush," Yuffie swatted her.

          Purchases made, there was some debate as to whether or not shoes were needed. Zephyr had a legitimate point in saying that none of them had a short dress, so it didn't matter what they wore on their feet because _no one_ would see it. She was met with protest from Aerith and Kairi.

          "Look, I'm not wearing heels, either, yeh know," Yuffie said. "I'm clumsy enough as it is."

          "But they'd look good on you," Kairi said.

          "I don't care!" Yuffie snapped. "Yer willing to torture yourself just for looks, but I think that that's stupid. I'd rather wear boots."

          Zephyr perked immediately.

          "I've got an idea," she said, lips curving into a smile. She skittered across the Second District, Aerith, Kairi, and Yuffie running behind her. They made it to a familiar shop—a clothing store for which Zephyr worked. She skidded to a stop inside, her friends smashing into her one after another until she toppled over.

          "I know that squeak," someone said. They looked up to see a young man at the counter with a towel slung over one shoulder. "Yer off today, Zephyr. Why're you here?"

          "Nice to see you, too, Vere," she said dryly. "I'm gonna need to raid the back for two pairs of dress boots."

          "For who?"

          "Me an' Yuffie."

          He raised his eyebrows. "All right. You made 'em, so I guess you can have a pair or two." He paused and looked at her remaining two companions. "Or three or four."

          "I can pay."

          "You made 'em. Yer entitled."

          "Thanks, Vere." Zephyr looked back at Kairi and Aerith, who politely declined the offer of the boots. She shrugged and led Yuffie into the back as the other two left to find their own taste in footwear.

          The ninja was surprised at the fact that the boots were of colored leather. She picked a red pair that would go with her dress; Zephyr took a black pair, because, she said, that the beads on the hem and collar were black.

          "Can we go get some lunch now?" Zephyr asked. "I'm starving to death."

          "Sounds like a plan to me. We kin catch up with Aerith and Kairi later. My stomach will take me hostage unless I feed it soon," Yuffie said. Her friend snickered as they made their way back into the First District and sat down at a table outside the café. It was a cool day in autumn, and leaves blew in a slight breeze. They must have come from a park one the other side of the District.

          "So remind me again how we got mixed up in this whole thing?" Zephyr said.

          "I think it started when we agreed to go with them shopping for dresses," Yuffie said. "They're probably gonna get us to do more—like hair and makeup."

          "Nuh-uh! No makeup for me!" Zephyr covered her face with her arms. "I dun wanna walk around completely whitewashed."

          "Completely _what?"_ Yuffie asked.

          "Whitewashed—painted."

          "Oh. Well, I don't really like the idea either. But they're gonna make us do it," she said with a shrug.

          "Not if we fight tooth and nail. And besides, I can threaten to use every ounce of blackmail I've got on them." A wicked grin came across her features.

          "Oh, nice."

It was the day of the party—but it was only mid-afternoon and they didn't have to leave until after dinner. Aerith had insisted that they stay together that whole day and start getting ready ahead of time—_way_ ahead of time.

          "This makes little sense, yeh know," Zephyr said. "I mean, it'll take me all of about thirty minutes to get ready, so why can't I got riding or something to pass the time?"

          "No," Aerith said sternly like a mother addressing an ornery six-year-old. "You'll just get filthy again."

          "It takes me ten minutes to shower. Really, I'm not that high-maintenance, ya know," she snapped.

          "Well, you also need makeup—"

          "Over my bloody, mangled corpse," the girl said bluntly.

          Aerith ignored her and continued. "Probably could use to get something to cover up that scar on your shoulder. You can see it when you have your dress on."

          "I think of it as a medal of honor."

          "Yer weird," Kairi said, rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to the mirror in front of her.

          "Exactly _what_ are you trying to do?" Yuffie asked her.

          "Something to do with my hair."

          "Just wear it down. There's not much that can be done with short hair," the ninja suggested. It was true—Kairi had let her hair grow out some over the years, so now it fell below her chin, but it was still to short to put up in anything. Yuffie had kept cutting her hair and kept it just as short as it had always been. Aerith had trimmed hers so it was always the same length. Zephyr had let hers grow, only trimming off what she needed to trim off, resulting in _her_ hair being longer now than it had been when they had met her. (It was long then, too—down to her waist—but now it was even _longer_ than that.) Thick black hair fell straight down her back, past her waist, to the tops of her thighs.

          Aerith picked up a fistful of her friends hair and combed a few tangles out of it with her fingers. It was thick, and, to her surprise, soft. She had expected it to be coarse, like horsehair, or like Cloud's.

          "What're you doing?" Zephyr asked nervously.

          "Come sit here," the Flower Girl led her to a chair. "We have to do something with all of that hair of yours."

          Small hands flew to her hair protectively. "If you cut any of it off, I'll projectile-vomit down yer dress—and don't think I won't, either!"

          Aerith stepped back cautiously. "Oh, I believe you, all right." She stood behind her and grabbed a brush. Brushing out three feet of thick black hair proved to be difficult, but eventually, the tangles were gone and she began to work on her friend's hair.

          Zephyr ended up with a long French braid with a dark green ribbon threaded through it. She put a hand to the back of her head and grinned. She imagined that it looked nice, although she couldn't actually see the back of her own head. Aerith put one mirror behind her and another in front so she could see.

          "Where'd you learn to do that?" Yuffie asked. She had been taking a brief nap on Aerith's bed in the Red Room, where the four of them were congregated. She was still laying down with her hands behind her head, looking at her friends.

          "I've known how," she answered.

          "Then how come you've never done it before?"

          Aerith screwed up her face. "Because I can only do it on other people—it doesn't work when I try and do it on myself."

          "I'd offer to braid your hair like I do to braided reins, but I don't think you would like it very much," Zephyr said.

          "What's it look like?" Aerith asked. Zephyr showed her an unfinished one. It looked like a regular braid, only a little more complex. If trimmed with something, it might look good on Aerith.

          Zephyr worked quickly, threading a white ribbon into her hair and tying it at the bottom. The ribbon was stiff, and the bow held its' shape unaided.

          "Yeh know," Yuffie said. "With the two of your braids combined, we could have enough rope to dock a big ship to a harbor!"

          Zephyr turned and ran a hand down her braid. She was right—both of their braids were incredibly thick—thick enough to be used for ropes. She shook her head to make the braid flop back and forth.

          "You act like you've never put your hair up before," Kairi said, looking at her friend from the mirror she was sitting in front of.

          "Well, I haven't. Not really," she replied. "Except braided and coiled when I worked in the stable—just to keep it up and out of the way."

          "Then why doncha just cut it if it gets in the way?"

          "Because I like it long. Isn't that sufficient enough reasoning?"

          Kairi said nothing in response.

          It was a while until they were stepping into dresses—they all seemed excited about it, except that Zephyr was bristling with nervousness and felt like she had dropped the bottom of her stomach somewhere.

          "I feel weird," Yuffie confessed once she had gotten into her dress and zipped it up the back.

          "Why's that?" Aerith asked through the bathroom door.

          "Can you remember when the last time I wore a dress was?" She said with a scowl on her face and her hands on her hips.

          "Actually, I can't."

          "Well, neither can I." She spun in front of a full-length mirror. It felt strange to look at a mirror, and instead of seeing the Greatest Female Ninja Ever staring back at her, she saw a beautiful woman in a long scarlet gown. The unfamiliar woman in the scarlet gown bent to slip on her boots. The dress covered them completely—Zephyr had been right about it being futile to bother with getting new shoes, although both she and the younger girl were long overdue for a new pair, anyway.

          "I feel weird, too," Zephyr said in a soft voice that she only used when she was incredibly shy about something—it was the voice she had used around Riku before she'd gotten to know him better. She fidgeted nervously now, running her hands down the front of her dress.

          "Because it's been fifteen years since you were in a dress last?" Kairi pinned her bangs away from her face with a pin decorated with glass "diamonds."

          "Well, that, too," she said, then turned her attention back to the mirror and swished the skirt back and forth. "What I meant is that I feel…" she trailed off, either not knowing the phrase to use or being too embarrassed to use it.

          "Pretty?" Aerith offered, poking her head out of the bathroom. "Could someone tie this up for me?" She asked, holding the laces behind her neck. Yuffie came to her rescue. "Not too tight!" She told her friend before she handed the laces over.

          "I know—yeh want Cloud to be able to getcha outta this thing relatively efficiently," she said before laughing at her own joke.

          "Yuffie!"

          "Yes?" The ninja asked, all sweetness. "Hey, mine zips—I kin get out of it in a snap." She snapped her fingers.

          "Yea, well, there's only two things holding my dress up—and Kairi's, too, for that matter," Zephyr said. She seemed to be back to her old games again.

          "Whatcha mean?" Kairi asked, taking a brush to her hair again.

          "The left one and the right one," she replied simply. When her friend turned the same color as her dress, she added, "And you might wanna think carefully about brushing yer hair so much. If you keep brushing it like that, it's gonna start falling out."

          "Yours does," Yuffie said.

          "That's different—I shed. Actually, all of us do, only mine seems like a _lot_ more because there's _so much_ of it." Zephyr paused and looked at Aerith slipping her shoes on. "You sure yer gonna be able to walk all the way to that party, dance and stand and walk about for hours on end while we're there, and frolic all the way back without turning an ankle or collapsing from those shoes?"

          "Your vote of confidence is positively over_whelming,"_ the Flower Girl said, using the heavy sarcasm that she had picked up from Zephyr over the years. The girls had spent enough time together over the four years that they had all lived in the same place to begin rubbing off on one another—Yuffie's perky and high-strung nature was rubbing off; Kairi's optimism was rubbing off; Aerith's sweetness and gentle nature was rubbing off; and Zephyr's sarcasm and quick wit was rubbing off.

          "Hey, I was smart and bought boots. But I've got other things to worry 'bout," Zephyr said.

          "Such as what?"

          "Well, I said there were only two things holding up this dress—my hips and this collar."

          "It zips up in the back, too," Yuffie said.

          "Still feels weird, though," she said. "My back is bare—hey, bareback." She snickered. Then her face went a bit solemn. "Uh-oh."

          "What 'uh-oh'?" Kairi asked.

          "I'm tone-deaf and I can't dance," she said nervously. "That could pose as a problem."

          "You'll be fine," Aerith assured her. "We still have to do something about that scar of yours."

          "No!" Zephyr backed up against the wall. "What would you do with it, anyway?"

          "Just a little bit of makeup and no one will be able to see it," she said.

          "But… it doesn't really matter," Zephyr pointed out. "It's raised. Even if you _did_ camouflage it from a distance, Riku would still be able to feel it. And besides that, the make up might rub off on his hands."

          "No matter what we're talking about you can always seem to drag Riku into the conversation!" Yuffie snapped. Then she leaned in and whispered, "Good work."

          "Um… thanks. I think." She grinned a little. Then she sighed and leaned on the wall. The color was draining from her face. "I am such a freakin' nervous _wreck!"_ She finally said. Goosebumps rose up on her skin.

          "You'll be fine," Aerith said.

          "We're not gonna hafta walk down some huge staircase in the middle of the room so that everyone looks at us walking down, are we?" The nervous girl asked as she began to fidget uncontrollably.

          "I don't—"

          "If we do, I'm sneaking in through the kitchen. If it's in the hotel Ballroom, I'll be okay because the kitchen staff knows me."

          "I guess so, it that's what you—"

          "But what if I get caught or they don't let me in?" Pause. "I dunno, I'll think of something."

          "All ri—"

          "Unless—"

          _"Shut up, Zephyr!"_ Aerith yelled. The girl whimpered. "You'll be _fine."_ Aerith sighed heavily.

          Kairi had located a small scar on Yuffie's back, probably due to a Heartless fight years ago. She was covering it with a little bit of makeup so that it would be invisible.

          "Yeh know, between you and Zephyr I think there's more scars than any unit on the front lines," Kairi said, rolling her eyes.

          "Don't think of 'em as scars," Zephyr said. "I think of mine as badges of courage."

          "You must be _very_ proud," she replied sarcastically. "For someone with such 'badges of courage,' how come yeh run every time ya see a spider?"

          Zephyr didn't answer right away. "Oh, shut up, you."

"Told you it woulda been stupid to get a ride. It's a five-minute walk from the Red Room out to the hotel's Ballroom. Really, you've absolutely no sense of logic," Zephyr walked ahead of her friends. She felt more nervous than ever now that she was out in public and wearing a dress.

          The party was not hard to find—there were people everywhere. The entrance was as Zephyr had predicted—at the top of the grand staircase and everyone would have watched them. When she saw this, the girl promptly turned to walk away. Aerith grabbed her arm and dragged her.

          "Oh, God, no, please don't drag me down that way!" She begged. "If I get stared at I'll throw up!"

          "You won't be sick."

          "Not if I faint first."

          "I give." Aerith let her go. "Yuffie, why don't you take her down to the kitchen and make sure she gets inside, then come back up here and the three of us can go together."

          "All right," the ninja said with a shrug. "For brevity's sake, I suppose that that works. Save a trip or two to the hospital as well. C'mon, Zephyr."

          They made it to the back door at the kitchen. The hotel's kitchen staff knew Zephyr because she was always sneaking in to nail leftovers. None of them minded it—it meant that it was fewer plates to scrape and wash. They were more than shocked this time to see her dressed up as they moved the make a path for her to walk through. She slipped through the kitchen doors and into the Ballroom itself. She almost felt like running again, stopped only by the fact that she had promised Riku she would come.

          Unfortunately, finding one person in this mess would have been like locating a grain of rice buried in the sand. Shivering from nervousness, she sat down against a wall near a handful of other girls who were tittering amongst themselves and didn't take any notice to her. She'd lost sight of Yuffie, Aerith, and Kairi as soon as they had left her to fend for herself.

          "Hello."

          She jumped and put a hand to her heart to see if it was still beating. She turned around and looked up to see Riku standing near her.

          "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" She said. Then she paused to take a close look up at him. He was dressed simply, not decked out like an idol. He wore black pants and a black silk shirt; his hair was held back with a rubber band, although half of it was too short to be held back and still fell on either side of his face.

          "Why're you sitting with the wallflowers?" He asked. "You're too beautiful to be sitting alone."

          She could feel her cheeks burning. "Wait—what's a wallflower?"

          Riku grinned and offered her a hand and pulled her up. "A girl who doesn't have a date," he said. "And it's entirely unbelievable that _you_ would be here without one." He kissed her softly. He ran his hand down her bare back and over her shoulders until he found the small raised scar. "Where'd you get this?" He asked.

          At first she didn't know what he meant, until she put her hand there herself. She sighed. "Fell out of an apple tree when I was little," she said. "I scar easy."

          "What were you doing in an apple tree?"

          "Picking apples."

          Yuffie had been sitting next to Leon; now she got up and took him by the hand and gave it a tug. "C'mon, Squall, come dance."

          "I don't dance," he said.

          "Oh, come _on._ Please?" She asked, trying to look as pathetic as she could.

          Leon sighed, but he didn't get up.

          "For me?"

          With that, he _did _get up. Yuffie smiled and quietly tried to instruct her love on what to do so that she would not get trod on. When he had gotten it, they danced with no air space between them.

          The first couple to up and leave was Sora, Kairi in tow. They passed Yuffie and Leon on their way, and Yuffie pointed out the door to the kitchen. "Kitchen door's that-a-way, kids."

          "The kitchen door?" Leon asked.

          "The back door. That way no one knows they're gone," she explained. "It's how Zephyr got in here undetected."

          "You got The Shrew to come?" He asked, completely shocked. "How'd ya manage that?"

          "We didn't," she said. "Riku did."

          "Ah. Enough said, I think." He wrapped his arms firmly around her and pressed his lips against her forehead.

          It seemed that both Cloud and Leon had fought tooth an nail to avoid going to the party, but had given in once they figured the prospects of seeing the women dressed up—a rare occurrence, especially in Yuffie, who preferred to dress like… a ninja.

          "Cloud, don't," Aerith whispered. Cloud had been running his gloved hand up and down her spine and making her shiver. She kept telling him to stop, but she never made any moves to _make_ him stop, so he figured that she really didn't mind—she might even have been enjoying it.

          It had gotten quite late; the Clock Tower chimed and the bell tolled twelve times. Cloud took Aerith by the hand.

          "What?" She asked.

          "Come on—the kitchen door is this way."

          "What—? Wait a minute… did you sneak in through the kitchen, too?" She asked.

          "Yes," he answered. "Why, did you?"

          "No, Zephyr did."

          He shook his head. "Come on, before anyone sees us."

          They made their way to the kitchen door and slipped out before anyone saw them. The kitchen was relatively empty, as well, so they made it through and went back to their own room. Yuffie and Leon left not long after that, although they hardly made it to the Green Room door with their clothes.

          "I suggest—we lock all the doors," Yuffie whispered. "Or barricade them with something."

          Leon locked the main door and grinned.

          "Cloud thought of that before we left. The connecting door is locked."

          "You know everyone else is gone?" Riku asked Zephyr. She looked around the huge Ballroom before turning to him.

          "How can you tell?" She asked.

          He offered his hand. "Lets get outta here. You look as uncomfortable as I feel."

          "You read my mind."

          To avoid steady streams of people, they took the back alleys to their small room at the edge of the Second District. Zephyr had dropped the bottom of her stomach somewhere and felt somewhat lightheaded.

          "I hope you have the key," Zephyr said. "Because I don't. I had nothing to put mine in."

          "You mean this key?" He asked, swinging the key to the front door back and forth.

          "That'd be the one."

          The same idea was evidently in his head as it was in hers—she could tell just by looking at him. She would have pounced on him but fear made her immobile—she wouldn't make the first move, but he wasn't going anywhere, either. She figured he needed a push. She put her hand to the back of her neck and looked for the hooks that kept the dress collar closed and the whole thing from falling down and flipped it open. Her other hand kept it up for a minute before she let the dress drop…

Three girls sat in a small house, having lunch and talking—Kairi, Aerith, and Yuffie. The question of Zephyr's location was brought up once, but they decided that she probably had had to work and dismissed it.

          "Some party, huh?" Kairi asked. "The hotel was totally booked—I think people had a better time there than they said."

          "Or the punch was spiked," Yuffie said.

          "Either way, everyone did the _same _thing once they got to a room and locked the doors," Kairi said.

          "Leapfrog?" The ninja asked before she broke into a fit of giggles.

          "Anyone have any idea where the guys went?" Aerith asked once they had stopped laughing.

          "Um… well, ten to one Leon is in the Waterway fighting some invisible enemy, Sora's probably with Cid, Cloud is probably looking for you, and Riku is either with Zephyr or with those horses," Yuffie said.

          "Yer probably right." Kairi leaned back. "It's funny—I've known Riku since we were little, and he never really struck me as the type that would like horses."

          "Maybe he's just never had the opportunity to be around horses until he met Zephyr," Yuffie offered.

          "Could be," Aerith said. "Or it could be that he's starting to like them _because_ of Zephyr."

          "Who knows?" Kairi asked. "He's a guy. We're not supposed to understand 'em."

          The doorknob rattled and the lock clicked. Three heads turned to see Zephyr—a very _tired_ Zephyr—walk in.

          "'Morning," she said as she closed the door behind her.

          _"Afternoon,"_ Yuffie corrected.

          "Whatever." She sat down at the table and yawned.

          "Where's Riku?" Kairi asked. At the mention of the name, she flushed.

          "With Vermillion," she said. "I took Moonriver over." She yawned again.

          "Sheez, why're you so _tired?"_ Yuffie asked. Her friend only shrugged.

          "Hey, wait!" Aerith said. "I can only think of _one_ thing that would make two people _that_ tired _overnight."_ She had a wicked grin stretched over her face. Zephyr turned deep red.

          "You—you didn't—he didn't—did he?" Kairi asked, eyes wide.

          Zephyr's expression turned cold. "It's none 'a yer business!" She snapped. She got up and headed for the door.

          "Hey!" Yuffie called.

          "What?" The girl hissed venomously.

          "Did you do anything?" She asked.

          "I don't wanna tell you!"

          "So you _didn't_ do anything, didja?"

          "I said I didn't wanna tell you!"

          "Listen, Zephyr," Aerith said. "If you stay in here, it means he nailed you, but if you go out that door, it means nothing happened."

          Zephyr scowled and threw the door opened, slamming it behind her. A few seconds passed and none of them said anything.

          "Wow. I guess nothing happened," Kairi said slowly. "Or else it _almost_ did, but someone backed out."

          "I guess so," Yuffie said.

          The door handle slowly turned and Zephyr slipped back in, closed the door behind her, and slid to the floor with her hands pressed over her heart. Her eyes were glazed and before any of them could ask, she nodded.

                                                                                                             ~*~

Woohoo! Riku finally nailed her. Took 'em long enough, and they've been sleeping in the same bed for a year. You'd think he'd'a gotten her before this! Hahaha. I would've made it a tad more descriptive (hell, I coulda done the whole scene, but I would lose a bunch of readers that way, including Snowri and Ellyrianna, who I really like) but that would mean I would have had to up the rating to R, and then not many people would see my beautiful work of art.

Next story is coming… eventually. I still have a summer reading report to finish on HP&OotP before the 26th. Blah. Oh, and my birthday was Monday!! Happy birthday to meeee! I'm sixteen now—the Year of the Driver's License! (As opposed to the Year of the Ox, the Year of the Tiger, et cetra, et cetra. What Cinese Zodiac year is it now, anyway? The one after the Horse, I think, because my brother is a Horse and he turned thirteen.) Look out, R270, here comes the Vulpes Lapis! Hehehe!

Sorry about the shortness. My meds are screwing up my brain and I can't write as well as I used to. I'm really, _really_ sorry about it. Forgive me?                   


	3. Set A Thief To Catch A Thief

I have another idea! I think I am almost, possibly, kind of on a roll here! It came to me last night in a drugged stupor, though, so its' quality can safely be named, at most, "Mediocre." But at least I'm trying! I'm introducing a new OC, as well *ducks bricks and big metal shrapnel thrown in her general direction* named Kaze. (Kaze is Japanese for "wind." Zephyr is "breeze." Kaze… Zephyr… Kaze… Zephyr… it just turned out that way—I didn't plan it, I swear!)

Summary: It seems that various robberies have taken place around Traverse when our cast is least expecting it. They're serial robberies, each left with no clues but for the thieves' "calling card"—a black leather right-handed glove with the initial "K" embroidered on the back in dark red thread. Everyone thinks that the thief is Zephyr—even Riku has his doubts about the girl—and she is forced to stay away from them. She gets fed up, and goes on a search for the _real_ thief—who turns out to be a girl called Kaze… and they don't hit off well. Will Zephyr and Kaze ever get along? Will Zephyr ever forgive her friends? Will her friends ever forgive _Kaze?_

This is for you, Kaze-chan! I hope you're reading this!

Yes, I _am_ using Enya song titles for chapter titles every so often. I forgot to put a disclaimer that time. (Oops.) My mom is a big Enya fan so there's a couple of her CD's laying about here. Song titles might be serving as several chapter titles, since all of the good titles are already taken by musicians.

You know the drill, right? VL owns NADA but for Zephyr and now Kaze? No, you don't? *starts stopwatch on her watch* Okay, then yeh got three minutes to get a visa out of the country or you are so dead. Ready—_go._

                                                                                                             ~*~

"I wasn't even _there! I swear it!"_ Zephyr yelled. She had seen someone running away from the café, and had come to see what all of the commotion was about when she had bumped into a very disgruntled Cloud Strife, void of his dark red cape. He held in his hand a black glove with something printed on the back, but from where she was standing, she could not make it out.

          "Don't deny it! I know you were there! How can you make up lies when I saw you running from the café not two seconds after you stole my cape?" He snapped at her. He swung the hand holding the small glove; she ducked it.

          "Because I came running _towards_ the café not two seconds later!" She snapped back. "I wanted to know what had happened. Now I know, but I _didn't_ steal your cape. Why would I?" She asked. "I have no use for it."

          To this, the man had no answer, but he still glared at her as if she was someone as undesirable as Hades.

          "What's going on out here?" Aerith descended gracefully from the Item Shop—she'd heard Cloud yelling. He turned and looked rightfully guilty as she walked forward. "Why are you yelling at her? What's she done?" She looked from him to Zephyr and back again.

          "She stole my cape," Cloud said quietly.

          "I did not!" The girl hissed.

          "Calm down." Aerith put a hand on her shoulder. She turned to Cloud, now. "Why would she steal your cape? It's longer than she is tall. No offense," she added hastily.

          "None taken."

          "I don't know—why don't you ask the thief?" He said tartly.

          "I didn't _do it!" She said again, sounding a little more desperate than annoyed, now. She pointed to the glove. "And that glove—look at it. It has a K on the back. Why would I have left a glove with a K on the back? My name doesn't even have a K __in it!"_

          Cloud had a sly look on his face. "How did you know it was left behind?"

          Zephyr blinked. "A calling card. Know all of those robberies around town? Everyone who's had something stolen has had a black glove with a K on it replaced in place of whatever item was stolen."

          "Whoever heard of a burglar leaving a calling card?" He was not letting up his stare at the small girl, who stood firm in her spot.

          "I dunno, but serial killers leave signatures," she offered.

          "A serial burglar, then?" Cloud asked, smirking.

          "Well… yea, I guess that's how you could look at it," Zephyr said with a shrug.

          "Nice try, Zephyr," he snapped. "I'll catch you stealing, don't worry. And while you're denying your thievery, could you at least give me back my cape?" He held out his hand.

          "I told you, you _idiot—I DON'T HAVE IT." She gave him a good shove and sped off._

          "Cloud, how are you so sure that she's the one who's been stealing things?" Aerith asked.

          "Because the thief running from the scene looked just like her," he said.

          "That's not solid evidence!" She crossed her arms.

          "All right, then how about this—who else could be so creative and so wily as to sneak something right out from under my nose in the middle of the day, surrounded by people, and leave a calling card in the process?" He threw the glove to the ground.

          "Aside from the calling card bit—Yuffie." Her face stayed blank.

          Cloud winced. "All right, fine. But I still think she's a little sneak."

          Zephyr was hiding in the Waterway, throwing rocks in the water.

          "Hey," Riku came and sat next to her. He was holding something in his hand, but he kept it hidden from her. "Heard Cloud yelling." He stared ahead, then glanced sidelong at her. "He thinks yer the thief, huh?"

          "Yea," she said, and then sighed.

          "You're not, are you?" He asked skeptically.

          "Of course not! Would I be stupid enough to leave a calling card and commit serial robberies when everyone here knows me to have a reputation as a weasel?" She asked. "Shut up, that was a rhetorical question."

          He grinned a little. "I found this near my stuff," he said. She looked at what he showed her—a black glove.

          "What's missing?"

          "My silver chain," he said. "You didn't—"

          _"NO!" She stood up and glared down at him, feeling betrayed. Why would they think that she would steal from them? She had no _reason_ to do that! She was a weasel, but she wasn't a complete _rat!_ She could feel a knot forming in her throat. She swallowed it and stomped off._

          Riku sighed and put one hand through his hair. He'd set her off. Again. She was fairly easy to anger of late, because everyone seemed to be thinking that _she was the thief roaming around. He didn't think that she was the thief, but it was awfully coincidental that she had been spied running from the scenes of the crimes—or what __looked like her. It seemed like relatively solid evidence, though, as no one else was deft enough to slip away so easily, or along rooftops, which the thief had also done._

          Zephyr sighed heavily and went to tend her two horses. The huge piebald gelding, Moonriver, sensed her disdain and lipped her shirt. She smiled slightly and stroked hi muzzle. "You don't think I'm a thief, do you?" She asked. He shook his head as if he understood. A red roan pony—Vermillion—stood dozing next to him. She decided to leave the mare be and take a ride _alone._

          As she rode in the streets, people stopped and stared at her, some looking angry. She could tell that these were the people that been stolen from. It seemed now that everyone thought that she was the thief when she wouldn't steal from them. The only things she would ever really steal would be food and clothes, maybe Munny if she needed it. She wouldn't steal Cloud's cape—it was torn at the bottom, and even if it wasn't, red was most definitely not her color. She would never have stolen anything from Riku, and even though she hated Leon, she wouldn't steal his belts from him. Kairi was missing a pair of opal earrings, but there was no glove at the scene of this crime, so it might just have been that she had misplaced them.

          Under the steady sound of the draught horses' hooves, she could hear someone skittering through the empty Third District. She halted him and looked around. She saw nothing, but there was something wrong. She dismounted quietly, and slipped into the shadows, becoming very difficult to see.

          She heard the footsteps again, this time accompanied by a figure running past her on the ground. In order to get the upper hand, Zephyr scampered up the side of a building and followed whoever it was. It was obviously someone who did not want to be seen, as he or she had their back to the wall and looked back and forth nervously, but because of the darkness in Traverse, Zephyr could not see the face or make out a gender.

          Fortune seemed to be on her side, however, when the unknown person scaled a drainpipe and headed north by way of rooftops. She followed silently, and on a ledge a little higher than the one on which the person ran, just so that they wouldn't be able to look down and see her—she would have the upper hand. Literally.

          …But not for long.

          The thief took a long leap and headed up to the ledge on which Zephyr was running, and the came close to one another. Zephyr was afraid, now, seeing a pair of dark blue eyes and long black bangs and a dusting of freckles. No wonder everyone thought that she was doing the robberies—from a distance, the thief looked _just like her. But up close, however, it was easy to tell that she was considerably bigger, and more filled out than she was._

          "How did—?" The stranger snapped her eyebrows together before she gave Zephyr one good shove off the roof. The small girl fell down the roof on her back, and then fell onto another ledge, this time sliding on her side. The shingles cut up her arm, shoulder, neck, and left marks on the side of her face. The roof ended and she fell backwards and landed in a heap on the concrete below and heard her wrist crack.

          For a while, she just lay there, trying to remember what had happened and to keep the image of the face fresh in her mind. When she pushed herself up, her right wrist gave beneath her and she fell again. She pushed herself up with her left hand and inspected it. Her wrist was swollen and was either sprained or broken. She was positive now that the stranger _was_ the thief—why else would she have pushed her off of a roof?

          Her sweatshirt was ripped and her scrapes stung badly. She groaned and stood; Moonriver was nearby and she slowly got up on his back. "C'mon, Moonriver," she whispered. "Back home. I've got some cleaning-up to do," she whispered. The horse set off at a trot.

"I can't believe that you would think that I would be stealing things from you—if you think about it, it makes no sense because everything that's gone missing are things that I either have myself, could get if I needed, or just don't have a use for in the first place!" Zephyr snapped at her friends, all of whom seemed to be thinking the same thing—that Zephyr was the thief. She was wrapping up her wrist and tending to her injuries sustained in her slide from the rooftop while she was trying to make them all see what she meant. So far, her attempt was futile.

          "You are the _only_ person here who has the kind of smarts and agility to perform thefts like this, leave a _calling card,_ and not get caught!" Kairi yelled, fists on her hips. She had not found her earrings and was still operating on the idea that Zephyr had taken them, because, she had said, Zephyr had so many ear piercings—eight in all. But all of hers were filled with silver rings—gold and opals would not be something she would take.

          "Well, maybe there's someone else here—someone we've missed," Zephyr suggested. "It's entirely possible. I told you before, I _saw_ someone, and from the way she reacted when we bumped into one another, she is, ten to one, the person we're looking for. And from a distance, she would look like me, only up close she's bigger, has blue eyes, and has freckles.

          "How do we know yer not just using your capable mind and making this up?" Sora asked. He, too had turned on her, as had Cloud, Leon, Cid, and even Aerith and Yuffie stayed away from her. Riku was stuck on the fence, not knowing whether to go with his friends or his heart. For now, however, he was going with his heart and he stuck with Zephyr, but no one knew for how much longer that would last.

          This remark made Zephyr bristle. Her friends had turned on her, and now she had nowhere to go for comfort. She could tell that Riku had his doubts on her honesty and decided to let him stay with his friends. She got up and stormed out of the room.

          "Zephyr, wait!" Riku followed her at a jog as the girl quickly began to get away.

          "What do you want? What _else_ was stolen that ya wanna blame me for?" She asked, voice icy.

          "No—Zephyr, it's not that. C'mon, just slow down and listen to me, all right?"

          She ignored him and kept walking. He grabbed her arm, and she turned and slapped him as hard as she could across the face. When he straightened up, she slapped him again on the other side. Then she ran for the Waterway, eyes tearing as she went. No one believed her anymore. The only way to prove her own innocence was to catch the _real_ thief and force her to confess. And with her diminutive size and lack of physical strength, that would be no easy task. She'd need a weapon, and since she wouldn't be going anywhere for some time, she would have plenty of time to make one. She found a thick piece of wood and began carving it with a knife…

          "You don't _actually_ think that Zephyr is the thief, do you?" Yuffie asked. She, Aerith, and Kairi were congregated in the small house that they had adopted years ago. Now that Zephyr was avoiding them (they hadn't seen or heard from her in days), it seemed to be missing something.

          "Well, yea," Kairi said. "Think about it—who else could it have been?" She asked.

          "She could've had a point though," she amended. "There could be another person that we've missed. Every so often the World Gates open and a few people come and a few people go. Maybe someone came in that load."

          "But _why?"_ The younger girl demanded. "There's plenty to do here that's not stealing."

          A clumsy light brown puppy sniffed around the floor. Zephyr's dog, Sandy, was looking for her mistress and not finding her anywhere, so she sat down at Yuffie's feet and whined pitifully. She was still a baby, and she missed Zephyr. When Yuffie gave her no attention, she went over to a sweatshirt folded up on the floor and shoved her head beneath it and lay down on the floor.

          "Why's she _do_ that?" Kairi asked.

          "Zephyr said that she puts a sweatshirt in here so that whenever she's gone, at least Sandy can have something around that smells like her so she won't feel so lonely," Aerith explained.

          "Oh," the redhead said. She picked up a black glove—one from one of the robberies, and threw it to the dog. "Here, Sandy, you can have this, too."

          The glove landed near the dog, and she perked her head up. She looked at the glove for a while before sniffing it, but when she sniffed it her lips curled away from her teeth and she picked the sweatshirt up and walked away from the glove.

          "What the—?" Kairi tilted her head. She went over and picked the glove up, then offered it to the dog again. Again, the dog picked up the sweatshirt and moved away from the glove. Yuffie was frowning, deep in thought because of the dog's actions. Experimentally, she took off her own glove and whistled for the dog to come to her. Sandy trusted the ninja and willingly pranced over, still holding Zephyr's shirt in her teeth. She sniffled the glove offered to her—she didn't take it, but she didn't move away, either. Instead she lay down and curled up on the floor with the sweatshirt like a toddler with a security blanket.

          "Why's she doing that?" Kairi asked. "This belongs to Zephyr, too." She held the glove up and inspected it.

          "No, I don't think it is," Aerith said. "Why would she run from it?"

          "Well, why didn't she run from Yuffie's glove?" Kairi asked tartly. "She's not Zephyr, either, ya know!"

          "No, I'm not," Yuffie said. "But Sandy knows me and trusts me. Here, Aerith, offer her something. See what she does with it."

          "What?"

          "I dunno—yer ribbon. See if she minds or not."

          Aerith began to see what Yuffie was doing. She took her ribbon out, and offered it to Sandy to sniff. The dog curled up next to the Flower Girl and wagged her tail, thumping the floor.

          "This isn't Zephyr's," Yuffie said, holding the glove in her hand. "If it was, Sandy wouldn't mind it. She might actually try and steal it! No—whoever left this is completely new." She didn't know what to think anymore, but she knew for certain that Zephyr was not the thief. Or, she was _fairly_ certain. She had a speck of doubt. "There's someone else. There's someone we have missed."

          "What're you saying? We should play detective and try to find who's actually _doing_ all of this?" Kairi asked.

          "Exactly."

          "I—I guess…"

          "Think about it," Aerith put in. "Zephyr may be a weasel, but she wouldn't steal from us, and she had a perfectly legitimate point in saying that the things that were stolen were things that she would never steal and had no use for." She paused. "Come to think of it, I'm kinda glad that Cloud's cape is gone. I've been trying for _years_ to get him to get rid of it. It's seen better days. Ten years ago."

          Deep inside the Waterway, Zephyr was hiding away from everyone. She'd found a crevasse in the wall, a few feet from the ground where there was no water, and decided that it was the best place to sleep until she caught the thief and was able to face her friends again.

          Her carving had produced a forty-two inch bow—a weapon she was familiar with. She had been a fairly good shot when she was younger, but having been away from a bow for so long, she felt clumsy, although her hands and muscles remembered what to do. She set up a wooden target and practiced shooting, but she hadn't had much luck and kept shooting the wall and snapping the arrows on contact.

          A broken wrist made drawing the bow difficult, but not impossible—she had to switch hands back and forth when her wrist started to hurt and could only work for a few minutes at a time.

          Eventually, she got better and instead of merely concentrating on hitting the wooden target, she concentrated on getting the white circle in the center. The bulls-eye was a hard shot, but, she told herself, with practice she could get the hang of it again and go out hunting for thieves.

          "That thing is almost as tall as you are," Riku's voice echoed through the Waterway. Zephyr sighed heavily. She didn't want to face him right now—he might have had another accusation for her.

          "Yes," she said, taking another arrow and aiming for the target. "That would be why it's called a 'longbow.'" She loosed and the arrow hit the ring just outside of the bulls-eye.

          "Nice shot," he said. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

          "You don't think I could always catch deer or rabbits with my teeth, now, did you?" She asked. "Now you might as well just accuse me of stealing whatever has gone missing and get it over with, but, in case you haven't noticed, I've not left the Waterway since the shit hit the fan."

          "I didn't come to accuse you of stealing anything," he said.

          "Have you come to inspect my belongings for black monogrammed glove?"

          "No!"

          "Then what do you want?"

          "I came to say I was sorry but that isn't want you want to hear, is it?"

          Zephyr put the bow down, an arrow still to the string, and turned to face him. "Has some evidence turned up that it was never my doing in the first place?"

          "I never thought it was you to begin with," he said. "You were never around at the scene of any of the crimes until you went to see what was up, and by that time, other people were coming to see what was going on."

          "So are you gonna help Yuffie try an' find who the real thief is?"

          "How'd you know about that?"

          "I spied on her."

          "Why?"

          To that she only put her bow up, drew, and loosed. The arrow struck dead center of the target.

"Hey, Pinkie, you are _so clumsy,"_ Yuffie hissed as quietly as she could manage. She, Aerith, and a reluctant Kairi were looking for any clues that would lead them to the real thief, but they were not having much luck. Aerith was clumsy and awkward when trying to walk on narrow ledges. Kairi was surprisingly deft, however, but she didn't much care to prove that Zephyr was innocent.

          They were walking along where another theft had taken place—just outside of a large, and rather wealthy home. The house had been robbed not four hours ago.

          "Hey, lookit this," Aerith had stopped and was looking at something in the wet paint on a pole.

          "What is it?" Kairi asked, rolling her eyes. She looked for herself and saw a handprint in the wet paint and rolled her eyes again. "So it's a handprint—so what? It's not like there's fingerprints in it or anything."

          "No," Yuffie had also joined them. "But the paint is still fresh so the handprint must have been put there no more than a few hours ago."

          "So?"

          "It's a _right_ hand handprint."

          "Does this conversation have a point?" Kairi demanded.

          "Yes," Aerith said. "If the handprint is only a few hours old, it can't _possibly_ have been made by Zephyr."

          "And why not?"

          "Because it was made with the right hand. Zephyr broke her right wrist yesterday, remember?" She asked. "She wouldn't have been able to pull herself up on this pole with her right hand—she couldn't even rotate her wrist."

          "I guess yer right," Kairi said quietly. "But is that all the proof we have?"

          "For now… we'll find more."

          The thief perched on a rooftop ledge a few feet over their heads, watching them silently. So they were on to her. Those three, the silver-haired guy, _and_ the one she was framing for all of this in the first place—they all knew, or had an idea, that the one called Zephyr was not the culprit.

          She made her way into the Second District and found a place where two horses were tethered and eating. Beside them, draped over a stone ledge, were two intricately made blanket saddles—a purple one with white designs at either end, and a bright blue one with silver and gold designs threaded into it. She slipped down from the safety of the rooftop and slipped the blankets from the ledge that they were draped over. In a flash, she left again, just as silently as she had come.

          Pleased with herself, she let her guard down for a quarter of a minute, which was all that was needed for Zephyr to act. A long arrow missed her by about a foot and struck the wooden sign behind her. She gulped and looked for where it had come from. Kneeling on another ledge about four and a half yards away from her was Zephyr, gray eyes furious.

          "You know I missed you on purpose," she said calmly. "I coulda' killed you."

          "I believe you," the thief replied, feeling herself begin to shake. "So what do we do now? I can't make a move as long as you've got that thing up, and if I ran, you'd never catch me."

          "So long as I'm handicapped with the broken wrist you gave me, I can't leap on my rooftops—but I can still shoot you from here. Besides turning my friends on me, those are _my_ blanket saddles you have, and I would like them back," Zephyr said. The thief dropped both blankets and let them float to the ground. "And what's more—I should turn you over for thievery and for framing me."

          Dark blue eyes went very wide and she gulped. "No, please don't do that. I'll never do it again, I promise—just don't turn me over. And don't point that thing at me, Goddammit!" She got down low, away from the arrow pointing at her.

          Zephyr lowered her weapon and looked at the girl standing a few yards from her. She looked young, despite being bigger than she was.

          "What's your name?"

          The thief blinked. "Kaze."

          "How old are you?"

          "Seventeen."

          She was just a baby… Zephyr sighed. "All right, listen up, Kaze. I won't give you away, but yer gonna hafta do some things fer me."

          A look of relief came over Kaze's face. "Name 'em."

          "First, yer gonna straighten out and put the stealing thing behind you," she said.

          "Okay. No more stealing. Anything else?"

          "Yes. You've gotta give back everything you stole, and give me all of your calling cards—the ones you've still got on you."

          "Calling cards?"

          "Those gloves."

          "Oh," she said. "Okay, no more stealing, give everything back, and give _you_ the calling cards. That it?"

          "Nope, there's still one more thing, but I think it's more of a favor to _you_ than it is to _me."_

          Kaze was visibly confused. "Huh?"

          "Once you've given everything back, go into the First District, and go to the Accessory Shop. There's a man there—his name is Cid Highwind. [A/N: I think. If that wasn't his name, it is now.] He can give you a job, and if he asks, then just say Zephyr sent you. Trust me, I used to work for him, only he was younger then and now he's on his way to being a tad…"

          "Absentminded?"

          "I was going for 'senile as a doorknob,' but I suppose that works, too," Zephyr said. "Now go on, scat. The sooner you do this, the sooner I can be at ease."

          Kaze left her line of sight. As soon as she was nowhere to be found, Zephyr clenched and unclenched her right fist. A broken wrist would still take a while to fix up. She had gotten up onto the roof with only one hand, but she usually needed two to get down, and one would be occupied with holding onto her bow. She sighed and felt like laughing and crying at the same time. She'd need some help.

          "Hey, Zephyr, what're you doin' up there?" Riku called, looking up at her. "And what's that arrow doing in the sign?"

          "I wanted to see if I could hit it from here," she lied. She would stay true to her word and not give away Kaze's secret so long as she kept her end of the bargain. Once she got a hold of her calling cards, she would bury them somewhere and never dig them up again. Burning them would be too obvious, and if someone found them in her room, she would be screwed.

          "Will you come down for a minute?"

          "I can't. Broken wrist and I need two hands to climb down," she told him.

          "Wait there, I'll be right up," he said, and grinned. Since she wasn't on a terribly high ledge, it was easy for him to get up, and because she was so small, she was light and easy to carry down, although she clenched her eyes shut from nervousness until his feet touched the ground.

          "Thanks," she said. "So… what did you want to say?"

          "No one thinks that it was you anymore. Yuffie and Aerith did a little looking around and found enough evidence so that everyone would get offa yer back." He sighed.

          "Let me guess—they sent you to tell me because they know I won't hurt you?"

          "Mm-hmm," he nodded. "Sorry I didn't believe you."

          "It's okay," she said. "And I'm sorry I hit you." She flushed a little. "You still have a bruise, doncha?"

          "Yea, actually," he pressed his hand to a mark on his cheek. "For someone who admits to having no physical strength at all, yeh left a pretty good mark." He took Moonriver and led him over. "C'mon… lets get to the First District."

          Zephyr smiled and gingerly pulled herself up, and let Riku get in front of her. When he was centered, she put her arms around him and leaned on his back. She sighed and closed her eyes.

          Some time later, Zephyr was back in the small house in the Third District, steadily sulking and refusing to speak to Yuffie, Aerith, or Kairi. All three of them felt guilty and were trying to apologize, but she would have none of it.

          "C'mon, Zephyr, it's us—yer aunt and uncle!" Yuffie said, referring to herself and Aerith. Aerith looked at the ninja with raised eyebrows as she continued to speak. "Remember us? We got your drunk for the first and probably _last_ time; we taught you how to drive."

          "Both on the same night," Aerith added. Then she whispered to Yuffie, "By the way, I _knew_ that teaching her to drive was a mistake!"

          "Shut up," Yuffie snapped.

          "Look, I told you I was innocent, and when you didn't believe me, I was betrayed. If you can't believe me when I tell you something, then we can't be friends!" Zephyr yelled, then she got up and stormed out.

          "Damn…" Yuffie whispered.

          "I feel absolutely terrible," Kairi said. She hadn't found her earrings, which, to Zephyr, meant that she had misplaced them.

          "So do I," Aerith said as she sat down. The door opened again and Zephyr came back in.

          "I got as far as a streetlight and I missed you guys already," she said, hanging her head. "Can we be friends again?"

          "Of course." Aerith pulled a chair out for her friend to come sit.

          After a pause, Yuffie spoke up. "So… now that you've made up with Riku and you won't be sleeping in the Waterway anymore, yeh think you'll be at it hammer and tongs again?"

          "Do we _always_ have to drag sex into our conversations?" Kairi snapped.

          "Yep," Yuffie said.

          "Oh… okay."

                                                                                                             ~*~

You set a Thief to catch a Thief, for sometimes the only remedy for an evil is another evil; two negatives equal a positive.

                                                                                                             ~*~

Okay, I can admit that this one was not as good. Kaze didn't have much of an appearance in her own debut episode, but she'll be a bigger part of the next story, which, by the way, should be quite comical, but be prepared to wait a while for it—I want to make it long and good.

Please review and make this screwed-up author happy! My stupid meds are really, _really _impairing my brain and I seriously can't write as well as I used to be able to… so the old ten-thousand-word entries will be few and far between. I am _so_ sorry.     


	4. Divided We Stand

This is starting off with no plot, but I have GOT to write something—anything! And I'm in a happy mood because today is my last day of work at my SHITTY job. YAY! I get to work at PetsMart now and work in the horsie section! ^_^ So here goes…

Summary: [I got an idea! Cool, I am SO on a roll!] Parraz, the meddling jackass, noticed how our characters like acting—about ten years under their own ages. He hates the ideas of them having relationships so young and he hates their "childishness." So what does he do? He has a psychoanalyst come to evaluate them, and, hopefully, split them all up. But Kaze, the ex-thief, catches on when she sneaks a peek into his briefcase and warns them. Now they have to act their ages for an entire week until he leaves. Can they do it, or are they all perpetually adolescent?

~~~ = A flashback

Anyone who still needs a disclaimer _really_ knows how to push all of my buttons at once…

                                                                                                    ~*~

"I still can't believe you locked your key inside," Zephyr said simply from her position on a roof. She was balanced carefully, putting her weight on her feet and her left hand because she had broken her right wrist four weeks ago in a chase with the ex-thief, Kaze. She watched Riku struggle with a lock pick and the lock to their room.

          "You _could come down here and help me, yeh know," he said irritably._

          "I have a better idea." She bounded down from the rooftop, remarkably agile for someone with a broken wrist, and slid in front of the door. She pulled a key from her boot and unlocked the door as her love glared at her.

          "If you had the key, why did you let me obsess about it for an hour?" He yelled. He slammed the door and stood in front of it so she couldn't get into the room. He crossed his arms and did his best to look angry at her.

          "Because you're rather comical when yer all flustered about something," she replied simply. This made him look even more upset, and she added, "And yer cute when yer angry." She giggled when he pressed his mouth to her neck. Mouths met and Riku's hand reached behind him to try and find the doorknob so that they could get inside and continue.

          "I swear, you are getting more and more coarse as days wear on."

          They parted, and Riku smacked his head back against the door with his eyes closed. They both knew the voice very well—it belonged to a meddling old man named Parraz, who pried into their lives all too often. Now was no different. He seemed to have something against people showing affection for one another outside of a locked room and, God forbid, outside of wedlock.

          "Is this a wicked conspiracy, or an _incredible coincidence?" Zephyr whispered. Riku laughed quietly._

          "I see nothing at all that is funny about this situation, especially that a young lady your age be so intimate with a young man." His voice was scorning. "You can't be any older than seventeen!"

          "Wow, I must be getting younger," Zephyr said in a very tart tone. She said it loud enough to ensure that Parraz would hear it. He obviously had because his face was going from white to orange.

          Riku noticed the man's climbing rage and placed an arm around her waist, both for some kind of protection and out of spite to make the old man even _more_ livid.

          "At least he was closer than when he guessed that you were twelve," he said. Zephyr wrinkled her nose. Three years ago, when she was sixteen, she had had her first encounter with this man, and he thought that she was only twelve years old. The remark had made her go berserk, and now was no different, but she kept her rage under control.

          Riku sensed her control slipping, however, and kept a good grip on her. She wasn't strong enough to escape his grip and she wouldn't even if she could, but a few squirms and twists and she might fall out without trying. And then she would head right for her prey—Parraz. A low growl rose in her throat and she flailed a little bit but didn't escape Riku's hold on her waist.

          "And, of course, the girl is an uncivilized animal. What _anyone_ would want with her is a mystery," the older man said with a hint of cockiness to his voice when he saw Zephyr spin in the circle of Riku's arms and roar like a wildcat. Then she turned back around and burrowed her face into Riku's chest, still growling softly. Parraz stalked off with a lofty look on his face.

          "Zephyr—he's gone," Riku said, moving back a little so he could see her face. She looked up at him, and then back in the direction that Parraz had gone, and then back up at him again. "How come you let him get to you like that?"

          "You know me—it dun take a lot to get on my nerves." She sighed. "Besides, you know how much I hate him. He's nearly smashed Yuffie and Leon's relationship to bits more than once."

          "For which crime you have tried to kill him."

          "I'm entitled." Pause. "So what did we come here for again?" She asked. She was answered in due time when a few raindrops fell from the sky before the cloud opened up and soaked them both. The pair scrambled to get inside before they were drenched any more. Once inside, Riku wrapped himself in a blanket and sat down, and beckoned Zephyr to come sit with him. She gladly obliged.

          "I _hate it when it rains like this," he said._

          "I don't. I like the rain—I'm a puddleduck."

          "I don't get it—how can you like getting drenched?" He asked, confused at her choice of ideal weather.

          "I dunno, how can you like frying in the sun?" She was referring to his old home of Destiny Island, where it was always considerably warmer than it was in Traverse. None of them, however, had had any contact with sunlight in over four years because of the terminal darkness in Traverse Town.

          "Preference, I guess."

          "Thereya have it." She sighed a little. "What's up that guy's ass, anyway? I swear, he's trying to make sure no one can ever so much as hug without parental permission or a wedding ring."

          Riku only sighed. Parraz got on his nerves, too. He even got on Aerith's, which was saying a _lot because it took a great deal to anger the Flower Girl—except Zephyr, who knew __exactly what to say and when to say it to get her to explode. "People like that should just be drowned at birth."_

          "I agree."

          While the young couple talked, the man, Parraz, stalked off. It was disgusting that the girl was so young and yet such a tramp to live with what he perceived as an older man without even being married to him. It was against everything he had ever learned. And he hated the childish behavior of the entire group—even the elderly pilot and the adults acted immature at times. And it was rare to see some of them—particularly the girls—not wrapped around their lover. To show such affection in public was no better than wearing a sign that said, _"LOOK AT ME, I'M A DAMN TART." He scoffed. If only there was a way to break them all up, and his problems would be solved…_

          He stopped and grinned to himself. There _was_ a way to break them all up. But he had to have someone prove that they were mad, first. Once he proved that, then the town would have them broken up and sent to other places, and no two of them to the same place. He had a friend in the more populated area of the town—the friend was a psychoanalyst, and if _anyone_ could tell whether or not these people were stark raving mad, it was him. A little trip to see his friend would be the beginning of him _hopefully_ splitting up this Posse—one by one.

          It worked. Forbes had agreed to follow them about and keep an eye on them for a week, to write up a report on just _how crazy they were. But he needed to stay near them, so he checked into the hotel. The first two people to spot him were Yuffie and Kaze. Both immediately asked who he was and what he was doing there, since nobody ever really came this far into the District without just cause._

          "I'm a hotel inspector. I'm here on a job," Forbes lied expertly. Yuffie bought the lie, but something about him troubled Kaze. She didn't know what, though, but she did know one thing—she smelled a rat. A big, greasy _rat._

"You should know by now that unless you tell her _not_ to, chances are that she _will,"_ Yuffie said, trying desperately to keep from laughing as she helped to replace the letters in the Item Shop's sign. Zephyr had shot all four of them out when an arrow ricocheted off of stone walls and overhead for a few moments.

          "You'd think it'd be a given not to shoot signs down!" Cid yelled. He, too, was helping, and Zephyr was talking the three young ducks out of a lawsuit.

          "For the record, you know, she wasn't even _aiming_ at the sign," Riku put in for her defense. "She was aiming at a wooden target."

          "In the air?" The pilot snapped.

          "Well, yea," he said. "She throws 'em up in the air and tries to shoot 'em. She just missed this one."

          "Ya _think?"_ Cid swore blackly under his breath when the wooden supports gave him a splinter in his palm. "Zephyr, from now on yer targets hafta be _grounded!"_

          Zephyr looked over her shoulder, having finally gotten the ducks to drop their lawsuit idea and leave her be. "It was only a fluke. The only reason I din get the target was cuz my wrist is broken."

          "Then no more shooting that thing 'til it gets better!" He picked at the splinter with his fingernails. "In fact—gimmie that thing before you shoot someone right in the eye!" He reached out to take her bow.

          "Actually, I put the eye out of a buck once."

          "Shut up, girl, you know that was sarcasm! Hand the bow over!" He went back to picking at the splinter again.

          "I'll make a bargain with you," she offered. "I'll pick out that splinter if you agree to lemmie keep my bow."

          "No, I think I'll have Aerith do it. She knows what she's doing." He backed up very slowly.

          "Oh, _what,_ you think that just because I've done some perpetually stupid things before means that if I try to do something simple like taking out a splinter that I hit a major artery and you'll _bleed_ to death?" She huffed.

          "Actually, no, I was kinda just worried about how deep it is, but yer outburst really din help my confidence in you."

          "You know, yer vote of assurance is positively over_whelming._" She rolled her eyes.

          As the argument went on, none of them noticed a shape behind one of the alley walls. Forbes kept an eye on them taking quick notes of everything that happened.

          The café was everyone's favorite meeting place, but today Kaze was missing. It made no one but Zephyr nervous, because only Zephyr knew of Kaze's previous life as a thief. It made her nervous when she couldn't find the girl for long periods of time. It meant that she could be up to no good, and she finally respected how everyone else felt when _she_ went missing—after all, no one ever knew what _she_ was up to, either.

          It wasn't until much later that night that Zephyr found out what her sneaky friend had been up to. It came about when she was rudely awakened from a peaceful sleep. She lurched up and smacked heads with Kaze, and hearing a laugh from her right made her realize right away that Riku was also awake. What time was it?

          "Zephyr, c'mon get up!" Kaze shook her violently.

          "Kaze? What the fu—the—how did—why're you here? Get out or I'll sever every nerve in yer butt!" She threatened, although too tired to follow through with it.

          "C'mon just get up! Both of you get dressed and meet me in the back hotel showers, okay? It's urgent!" With that she slipped away and disappeared.

          "Showers?" Riku asked, openly confused. He put a shirt on and slipped on his shoes. A band kept his hair in a ponytail as he waited for Zephyr to finish with her own shoes.

          "Yea… weird. You'd think that she'd be old enough to know where everything is."

          Although confused and tired, the pair met up with Kaze. Also present were Sora, Kairi, Yuffie, Aerith, Leon, Cloud, and Cid. She hadn't been kidding when she said "everyone."

          "Okay, I know it's dumb for us to be in here, but this is the only place where we can be _alone_ for a while so that I can tellya this!" She said.

          "Yea, no one _ever_ comes in here," Yuffie said with a huge yawn.

          "So what didja wanna tell us?" Cloud asked. He stifled a yawn and rubbed his hands over his face.

          "That guy, Forbes—he's not really a hotel inspector! He's a shrink and I'm betting that the Colossal Jackass, Parraz, had him come here."

          "Oh, God, not him _again,"_ Sora groaned. "Doesn't he have anything _better to do?"_

          "Evidently not," Zephyr said. "Besides, why would he want to do anything else besides harass us?"

          "Will you guys stop acting like a buncha terminal asses fer one second so I can get this through yer heads?" Kaze hissed. "This is serious! We gotta lay off the stupidity fer a week or so until he leaves—or sure as hell, he's gonna break us up, and I dun think any of us really want that to happen."

          "How'd you find out he's a psychoanalyst?" Cid asked.

          "I found some notes in his briefcase," she said.

          "Oh, you were snooping… good girl. Put yerself in fer a raise fer that stunt."

          "So this guy's a shrink, huh?" Kairi asked.

          "Yep," Kaze sighed. "We gotta be careful."

          "Definitely."

          "Can we go back to bed now?" Aerith yawned. Since she was so tired, she didn't seem to have absorbed the facts completely.

          "Let me remind you, Mrs. Strife, that if we get split up, it just might happen that we will _all_ get sent to different places. Which means you and your husband will have to cease your attempts to continue the species." Kaze paused. "And whatever other stunts you try and pull off in that bedroom."

          "Eliminate all the ones that involve swinging naked from a doorframe," Zephyr said.

          _"Stop that!"_ Kaze hissed. She was doing all she could to keep from screaming. "You guys have to act yer ages fer a while—that means _mature_—until Forbes leaves, or we're never gonna see each other again."

          At this remark, the airspace between couples closed a few inches.

          "All right, so it's settled—we start acting overly mature come morning," Yuffie said.

          "Does that mean we can't do something amazingly stupid in the few hours left between today and tomorrow?" Zephyr asked. Riku slapped his hand over her mouth before she could say anything else. Her long speeches would probably qualify as "mad."

          "Yea, I guess you can," Kaze said with a shrug. "I mean—since yeh can't go at it like rabbits for the next week, you may as well make this night last."

          Aerith and Kairi both burned scarlet at the remark, and Yuffie wore an openmouthed stare—Kaze had said something very similar to things that Zephyr would say, although from the look of it Zephyr was ready to take the girl's advice and herd Riku back to their room.

          Leon's fatigue had left as soon as he understood that if they were split up, he would never see Yuffie again. He jerked his head toward the back door in a silent suggestion that they leave to go back to bed—or at least to their room. Sleep would come _much_ later.

          The night was cool—much cooler after the rain, as well. The windows of the hotel were open to allow ventilation, making the halls somewhat chilly. Walking back to their room, Leon draped his jacket over Yuffie's shoulders. Both of them had walked out in their pajamas—Yuffie in her flannel pants and t-shirt and Leon wearing only pants. He's slipped a jacket on when they were on their way out, however, just so he wouldn't be shirtless in a showerful of other people—some of them men.

          "Why do things like this have to happen to us?" Yuffie pouted. "It wasn't enough that he just pissed us off by _existing,_ but now he has to try to split us up!" She scuffed her feet on the floor as they entered their room.

          "I know…" Leon took on his stoic attitude—the one he had not used since the FearFeeders were gone. He only used it when he had to block out his emotions for the wellbeing of everyone else, and in this case, he had to. None of them could be affectionate in public, nor could they act as their normal selves. And, Yuffie began to think, it would probably be best if she found a different place to stay for the meantime, so that nobody suspected anything with Leon and herself living in the same room—but Forbes had probably already guessed by now that they were lovers. He'd be a rotten shrink if he didn't guess.

          Yuffie shut the door behind them and locked it quietly. "We've got a few more hours left," she said coyly. "You heard what Kaze said, too—make 'em last." Her eyes had a mischievous glint.

          "You know, you really weren't any good at dropping _subtle_ hints," Leon told her. It didn't take long until Yuffie knew what he meant, but she knew he was only kidding about the attitude when he backed her into the wall and down onto the mattress.

Morning came, but only by the chiming of the town's Clock Tower. It chimed ten and everyone was finally awake and in the café to eat breakfast. Having long since befriended the owner, they were able to get meals for free, but anything else they wanted they would have to buy—like in-between meal snacks or drinks.

          Aerith and Cloud looked tired and were already sitting down at a booth together. There was no question in anyone's mind what they had been doing that night. Just to make sure that they didn't start anything in the café, Yuffie and Zephyr, who had come in together, sat with them.

          "'Morning," Cloud yawned.

          "Hey," Yuffie and Zephyr said in turn. They were all a little groggy, as none of them really got much sleep due to certain activities and the looming threat of breaking up. They plunked down in the seats and ate in silence for a while. Zephyr watched for Forbes out of the corner of her eye—she could see him two tables away, reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, but she could tell that he wasn't really paying attention to the newspaper. He was trying to listen in on what they were talking about.

          None of them could really think of anything to talk about, since the usual things that they talked about over breakfast were going to get them in trouble with this shrink. Instead, they tried desperately to think of something to talk about. Aerith tried to talk like a mature adult, but it was so out of place for Traverse that Yuffie and Zephyr had to restrain themselves from laughing.

          "Knock off with the sophisticated talk this early in the morning, okay?" Zephyr asked. "Knock it off all together if you can—I have a weak stomach."

          "This from a girl who has been known to eat things off of the floor and invented the 'Dead Ant' rule," Cloud said. They quickly hushed him.

          "Room for any more?" Leon had also come to sit with them, followed by Riku. Fitting all six of them in a booth was a difficult task, and a little shifting was required to accommodate Zephyr because she was left handed and had to sit at the outside of the seat or else smack elbows with the person next to her. [A/N: For all of those lefties out there, including myself. Well it could be worse—could be a round table.]

          "Acting mature is gonna be the most monotonous thing that's ever happened to us," Riku said with a heavy sigh. "And I have this strong urge to fling half of my breakfast across to that jackass just to make him stop looking in this direction."

          "If I was you, I'd watch my language," Zephyr told him. "He could read lips for all we know."

          "Oh, bra-_vo,"_ Yuffie groaned. "That's just what we need now. Man, this sucks."

          "Where's Sora and Kairi?" Zephyr asked. "I haven't seen them this morning—did they sleep in or something?"

          "It's _past_ sleeping in," Leon muttered.

          "Last I knew they were still in bed," Aerith said. "Someone should go and wake them up soon or they'll sleep all day and then they'll be up all night."

          "Like it matters," Yuffie snorted. "It's always the same here, anyway. Looks like the dead of night."

          Their conversation stayed neutral and bland all through breakfast. They kept having to nudge and pinch each other to keep from falling back asleep.

          "Is this a small preview of the next week?" Zephyr had her hands thrust in her pockets and she, Riku, and Kaze walked together through the streets. Jackets had come back out and they rain was becoming sleet, but it had stopped now. Even so, the ground was slippery from the frozen rain.

          Kaze had joined them out of nowhere—doubtless, she had been out and about snooping again, trying to find a way to get through the next week. She had no such luck. She sighed and looked down, saying, "Looks like we might just have to spend the next week like this. Seems a bit silly, though, because he can't keep an eye on _all of us_ at the same time."

          "But there's no way to tell who he's watching, so we really can't chance it," Riku said. "Which means you've gotta try to get along with Leon for a week, Zephyr. And being civil to Sora wouldn't hurt, either."

          "I know…" she shivered as a gust of wind whipped her face. "Damn, that's gonna be like pulling teeth with no painkillers."

          "There _has_ to be some way around this," Riku said. "I mean—we've pulled through things before, right? Why not this? We've always been Us against Them… whoever the 'Them' was, it was always the nine of us. And now we have Kaze, so that makes ten against two—or three if you count his wife."

          "But then there was no threat of us having to leave," Zephyr pointed out. "Then it was just a battle… now there's possibility of casualties and none of us want it." She shivered again, this time from fear. "Besides, I don't want to leave here. I can't. I can't leave anyone behind." She walked right up close to him. "Especially you." He smiled crookedly and put his arm around her shoulders.

          "We can't be immature _all_ the time, can we?" Kaze asked. She seemed to be very worried, and understandably so. "We _do_ have our serious moments."

          "That's true," Riku said. "We were _definitely_ real serious when the FearFeeders came and took over." He shivered at that thought. It was about that time that he had almost left Zephyr for good, but at the last second decided against it.

          Sandy found them and bounded around their feet, getting underfoot and almost tipping all three of them several times. She was a very excitable dog, but very well behaved. She barked and whined at Zephyr to pick her up.

          "Nuh-uh, doggie," she told her pet. "Yer too big to carry around, now. I could do it when you weighed thirty pounds. Now you weigh nearly eighty—I'll break my back."

          For a minute, they forgot about the threat of Forbes watching them; Riku swept Zephyr up and kissed her and Kaze sighed heavily.

          "What you guys do is _your_ business, but if you multiply, I'm taking you to the vet and having you both _fixed!"_ She threatened.

          "Hey, that's my threat," Zephyr snapped. Riku kissed her cheek and made his way down her neck until she had to push his head back. "Wait 'til we get inside," she whispered. Then she remembered the problem at hand and leapt out of his arms like a frightened rabbit.

          "What—?"

          "Forbes, remember?" She whispered. Riku closed his eyes and nodded. Being on their best behavior would be hard—they hadn't done that in _years._ Her wrist throbbed from the sudden change in weather from sunny to cold; the clenched and unclenched her fist to try and relieve it.

          "C'mon, lets get inside before it starts to pour again," he suggested as the winds picked up to a terrifying speed. Small droplets of sleet started to fall as they entered Cid's shop, where there was a lit fire. Sora and Kairi were there, as well, sitting on the rug in front of the fire and wrapped in a blanket.

          "So you hadda waltz right in here, didn't you?" Sora asked. Sandy had already made herself at home by laying down next to Kairi and putting her head in the young woman's lap.

          "Excuse us," Zephyr said. "It just happens to be raining and we wanted to stay somewhere where we wouldn't get wet."

          "I could interpret that in a _very_ racy way, but I think I'll keep my mouth shut," Kaze said.

          "What are you—hey wait a second!" Kairi gaped at the younger girl. _"You're obscene!"_

          "I'm even better on the phone."

          "Will you guys knock it off?" Riku hissed. Both clammed up, remembering why they had to be on their guard.

          "This is _ridiculous,"_ Sora growled, throwing a chunk of wood into the fireplace and making sparks fly up. "Wouldn't he have a justified _reason_ for bringing a psychiatrist over here to see if we're crazy or not? I mean—we have our moments but we are _definitely_ not crazy!"

          "Nuts perhaps, but not crazy," Zephyr added. She went to sit down on the table between the two sofas and put her face in her hands. They had a serious attitude, now, as they were all afraid of being split up and needed to reassure themselves and one another that things would work out well in the end.

          "But… what if we _do_ get broken up?" Kairi asked softly. She sniffled a little, partly from the outside chill and partly because she was three seconds off of crying.

          "I'd like to know what excuse he gave," Zephyr said. "I mean we've got our moments, but we can also be mature and responsible!" She glanced at Sora for a second and whispered, "Hey, Sora, come here, I hafta tell you something."

          "What?"

          "C'mere."

          "Whatever you've got to say you can say it out loud," Sora said. "I don't feel like getting up."

          "Okay fine—Sora, yer fly is open."

          Immediately, he fell back and struggled with his zipper for a second before sitting up. He was bright red from embarrassment.

          "See, now, if you just got up offa yer ass and did what she told you to do, you coulda been spared that humiliation," Kaze said. She was an _expert_ at keeping a straight face and making sarcastic remarks whenever something comical happened. Most people wondered how she did it.

          "No need to rub it in," he grumbled.

          The door opened, revealing two people, two dogs, and a raging sleet storm outside. The dogs and people, along with a fair amount of sleet, entered the small shop and shed their coats—Yuffie and Aerith had both sought refuge in Cid's shop. It was the one place they figured that they could be safe and away from Forbes.

          "Got room for four more?" Yuffie asked. "Sandy and Scout followed us."

          "Where'd yer gentlemen go?" Kaze asked.

          "Leon's in the Waterway—figures," Yuffie said with a sigh.

          "And Cloud?"

          "He was talking to Cid about something last I checked," Aerith told them. "I figure it was okay—it was a perfectly innocent and normal topic."

          "Who're you—his _mother?"_ Kaze asked, pulling a face at the woman's tone. The way she spoke, one would think that Cloud was thirteen years old and ADHD positive.

          "No, she's his wife," Kairi said.

          "Same difference."

Zephyr curled her finger and bit it to keep from laughing loudly. A big, wet dog knocked her down and put his nose in her ear. This one was Scout—she could tell because he was so much bigger.

          "Gak! Scout, get offa me!" She squeaked from beneath his furry bulk. He needed a haircut and a bath—he smelled like wet dog. Someone dragged him off by the collar—Riku had come to her rescue. "Thanks," she said.

          "No problem." He let Scout go once she was up, but the dog went after her again. He grabbed the collar and pulled him back to the floor. "Hey, paws off—she's mine."

          "How come you didn't stop Leon from going into the Waterway?" Kairi asked Yuffie. The ninja sighed.

          "He's impossible—you know that," she said. "He wanted to go in, so there was really nothing that I could do to stop him, although I wish he would reconsider. It's so _cold_ out that if he stays there too long he could get sick."

          "Why doncha just wait 'til he gets pneumonia?" Zephyr asked. "It might take something extreme to get him to learn. Some people really need a good rattle in order to figure out what's best for them, and from the looks of it, Leon is one of them."

          "How do you know that?"

          "Because I'm the same. I hadda get jabbed in the leg by a porcupine when I was nine before I figured out to leave things with spikes _alone."_

          "So that's where that scar came from," Riku said absently.

          "Exactly _how many_ scars do you have?" Aerith asked.

          "A _lot,"_ both Riku and Zephyr said at the same time.

          "How would you _know?"_ Sora asked, raising one eyebrow. Zephyr snorted.

          "You know perfectly well. Don't play innocent, it's not becoming on you," she said loftily.

          "Is _anything?"_ Kaze asked.

          "Stop that!" Kairi snapped. "Honestly—sometimes I wonder how your brains are wired!"

          "They aren't," both of them said at the same time.

          They had let their guard down in Cid's shop, thinking that nobody would find them in there… and none of them noticed the figure that was just outside the window and peeking in every few moments to take notes on them…

"I'm a nervous wreck!" Aerith said loudly ask she paced back and forth in the lobby of the hotel. "That guy is popping up _everywhere—_like there's more than one of him! Good Lord, are we gonna live in this state of paranoia for another forty-eight hours?" She asked.

          "Looks like we've go no choice, doesn't it?" Kaze said.

          "We're either gonna blow this whole thing sky high or we're actually gonna go _nuts!"_ Zephyr said. She had also adopted a state of paranoia. Kaze even became edgy, and she was usually very calm.

          "Why do things like this have to happen?" Yuffie asked nobody in particular.

          "Because we let our guard down too often, and then when they _do_ happen, we've got no idea what to do about it," Leon said. She swatted him, then leaned back against him.

          "I don't even wanna think about what'll happen if Forbes finds us crazy," Cloud muttered. "We'll be shipped off to different worlds!"

          "Like we needed a reminder!" Zephyr hissed. She sighed heavily. The last five days had gone by very rocky. Everyone was on pins, needles, and machetes from anxiousness and kept looking over their shoulders every ten minutes to see if they were being spied on. The girls never ventured into their little house to converse, and they, for the most part, kept silent. The days became quite boring.

          The next morning came a message that they had all been dreading—they were to see Parraz and his wife Meida immediately, as there was some "important news" to discuss. Nobody ate breakfast and Kairi got so nervous that she threw up. Cid smoked an entire pack of cigarettes over the course of the morning, filling most of his shop with foul-smelling smoke. Sora had wanted Zephyr's attention and made the mistake of tapping her on the shoulder—she jumped and screeched so loudly and so high-pitched that a glass broke. It had been Leon's shotglass, so it was a welcome disaster. Nobody wanted him drunk for what could have been their final day together.

          Thirteen people were crammed into one room. Forbes sat behind a desk; Parraz and Meida sat in front of it. Cid, Cloud, Leon, Sora, Aerith, Kairi, Kaze, Yuffie, and Zephyr managed to squish themselves all into the space. There were some chairs set out, so they could sit down, but couples had to pair up and share chairs.

          "Childishness!" Forbes said, looking down at pages and pages of notes. He got up and walked around them—Cid took the opportunity to steal his chair. "Total immaturity! Not just some silliness and a few good laughs, either—you are all totally immature people, a state of mind not only unbefitting to people of your ages, but attitudes unbefitting people who are supposed to be _responsible_ for themselves!"

          "Quite true," Meida spoke up, looking at each of them with such a lofty look on her face that Kairi looked like she was about to cry, Kaze looked like _she_ was going to be sick, and Zephyr looked like she was going to explode. From a pained look on Leon's face, it was clear that Yuffie was gripping his hands painfully tight to keep herself from doing something dangerously rash.

          "Look, we've got our moments, but we are _not_ entirely mad," Zephyr said as calmly as she could muster.

          "That girl is a menace. She is a wild animal and totally uncontrollable!" Parraz pointed a finger at her. The effect of his words was lost at the fact that she was snuggled comfortably in Riku's lap and was as harmless as a kitten at that point.

          "Oh, yes, how _vicious_ she is now… look at how kitten-like she looks," Kaze said, rolling her eyes and throwing a dart at a dartboard.

          "And the two of them _spy_ on everybody!" Meida cried. "They're _always_ up to no good!"

          Cid had to put in his share of smartass comments. "Now, dear, they _are_ our sons," he said. Meida gaped and stamped her feet on the ground. Cid mocked her.

          "If I ever become that daft, I want someone to take me outside and _shoot me,"_ Zephyr murmured.

          "Can I get that in writing?" Kairi asked.

          "Knock off the pranks, you guys!" Aerith snapped.

          "Oh, come on, Aerith, the cat's outta the bag, anyway," Zephyr said. "He knows what we act like on a regular basis anyway—it'd be the only thing that can take up that much paper!"

          "Actually, these are also notes taken by Parraz over the course of the last several years," Forbes said. He put on a pair of glasses and looked at one of the notes. "Which one of you are Yuffie and Zephyr?"

          Both girls nervously looked at one another, and then owned up to their names. Forbes went on.

          "It says here that three years ago, you had a chicken brought here from the Outer Districts, claiming that it was an endangered species. Is that true?"

          "Yes, sir, that was an exotic bird—it could play the piano," Yuffie said, paying no attention to the fact that this stunt that she and her friend pulled could cost them.

          Forbes paused. "Well, then… moving on." He picked up another note. "This note says that all but for… one of you… have an open relationship and carry your activities in public where they can be seen by _anyone."_

          "Kissing in public is hardly racy behavior," Zephyr said, looking the man right in the eye. She felt Riku's grip around her waist tighten. "It's perfectly natural and we _are_ responsible enough to know what we're doing—despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

          "And what about _them?"_ Meida pointed to Sora and Kairi sitting together. Her effect worked because Kairi was resting her head contentedly against his chest.

          Eyes still closed, Kairi asked, "They're all staring at me, aren't they?" She sat up. "Look, just 'cuz we're young doesn't mean that we're underage or anything."

          "How old are you and how long have you been together?"

          "Eighteen, and four years," she answered.

          "I don't see anything wrong with that," Forbes said simply. "What's the problem, Parraz?"

          "Don't you _see?"_ Meida seemed frantic now, trying to make the psychiatrist see things her way. "They're so _young,_ and I doubt _very_ much that they're still virgins!"

          "Everyone in this room who's still a virgin, please raise your hand," Zephyr said. When nobody did, she turned to Parraz, saying, "There you have it—we're all old enough to handle it."

          Meida fumed. _"You aren't even married!"_

          Zephyr still looked as if she was talking to Parraz. "So what, Parraz? The year is no longer 1943. Sex before marriage is not an uncommon thing, you know, and since none of us are really going anywhere, I suppose we're just the same as married."

          "It's dissolute!" The older woman snapped.

          "That's _amazing,_ Parraz, 'cuz, you know, I never _once_ saw your lips move. You must be an _expert_ in ventriloquism," Zephyr said.

          "Forbes, I just want you to know that I agree with _everything_ I just said," Parraz said. "And if you read the documents, you'll see that the antics of these people can really become quite… antic."

~~~

Kaze and Zephyr had become a remarkable duo. Separately, they were a handful—Zephyr was prone to pulling stunts like battles of semantics and nasty word games with people, and Kaze would steal people's shoes or light firecrackers right outside of hotel room doors.

          Together, the pair was nearly unstoppable, although they _did have their disagreements at times. They had been sent out with Cid to the Outer Districts to pick up some things. When they came back, both Zephyr and Kaze were battered up as though they had been in a huge fight._

          "What happened to _you two?" Riku had asked over a game of cards with Sora. Sora looked from one of them to the other, not sure whether to be worried that Zephyr had hurt Kaze, or to be frightened because Kaze had managed to cause some harm to Zephyr._

          "Can't be _that dangerous to drive from here to the Outer Districts and back again, can it?" he brunette asked. "Or is it that tough out there?"_

          "On, no, nothing happened in the District," Zephyr was quick to reassure as she re-wrapped her wrist. "These are all just from fighting with Kaze on the way back."

          Then came Cid with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a roll of bandages. "We either need a bigger jeep, or I'm making seats with _lids!"_ He yelled, shoving the medical supplies at the girls so that they could clean themselves up.

~~~

"Well I warned you that I'm not companionable in a car for long periods of time," Zephyr said in her own defense once the story was told.

          "It was an _hour's drive!"_ Cid said. "Good God…"

          "And that is not all," Meida put in, trying to prove that Zephyr was far too violent to stay in Traverse. She launched into the story of the very first encounter with the girl. She had obviously been watching, because she got the details perfect. She told about when Parraz had incorrectly guessed that Zephyr was only twelve years old when she was, in reality, sixteen. Zephyr had handled the matter civilly at first, but Meida launched right into the part about her being violent and hissing, spitting, and clawing at the man. It had taken both Sora and Riku to hold her back.

          "Yea, but she was justified." That defense for her came from, of all people, Leon. "If he'd kept his nose out of where it didn't belong, it wouldn't have happened."

          "Do explain," the psychiatrist said.

          "Well, see, he _totally_ hated the idea of our relationship—" Yuffie began, but she was interrupted by Meida.

          "Do you know the age gap between those two?" She screeched. "That girl is only _twenty years old!"_

          "That's hardly a girl, madam," Kaze said.

          "You shut up!" She yelled. Kaze recoiled and she went on. "That man is nearly thirty years old—I have _never_ heard of anything so disgusting or so ridiculous in my _life!"_

          "You think that about a _lot_ of things, madam," Kaze said. "That tone loses its' effect if you use it too often, and if you _really_ haven't ever seen anything so stupid in your life, then I suggest you look in a mirror or just look to your left at your husband." She planted her fists on her hips. Her words were both brave and rude, but they were true.

          "She's right. And if neither of those convince you, then just look around you!" Zephyr added. The Dynamic Duo was at it again. "If _your_ ridiculousness hadn't gone this far, we would all be other places right now—places that we _want_ to be. I for one have a job and am going to be in some _deep_ trouble when all of this blows over because I've missed work." She snorted.

          "Calm down, please," Forbes said. "Now, I understand that you are angry—you have the right to be. All of you have the right to be." He cleared his throat and went on. "Now, I have observed you for only a few days, but I have seen classic examples of attention deficit, hyperactivity, aggression, depression, overactive hormones, chronic fatigue… I've seen neurotic behavior, terrible arguments, and a few things I didn't even know existed, and I have been a doctor for over twenty years."

          "Get _on with it,"_ Cloud said, annoyed. If they were going to be split up, they just wanted to blow to fall fast rather than linger over their heads for a long time and then come crashing down.

          "I know what your people have been through," he said. "The Heartless attacks on your worlds and lives, the losses you have suffered, the FearFeeders making an enormous impact on your life—they have all contributed to what is probably ulcer-inducing stress."

          "All right, fine," Leon snapped. "But while you're talking about things we've been through, why don't you also consider the fact that we never did anything to this man and yet he finds it necessary to send along a psychiatrist to evaluate us. If we are split up, we are all each other have and if we lose that, we won't have _anybody."_ His gaze was hard.

          "I understand that, but with your amount of stress, you would not be the _first_ people, and most certainly won't be the _last,_ to snap—"

          "Hey! I haven't cracked 'cuz of all 'a this!" Sora snapped, joggling Kairi as he lurched forward.

          "Oh, I agree with Sora," Zephyr said.

          "Thanks," he sounded shocked that Zephyr would agree with him. What she said next sounded more like her.

          "He showed up here cracked—with a Keyblade in one hand and a teddy bear in the other."

          "You haven't let me finish," Forbes said. "I have seen you all lose yourselves in your own worlds; I have seen you fight and argue; I've seen people exhibiting signs of senility—and yet you have the maturity and minds to sit here and listen to all of this and you have not yet raised a hand to resist." He turned towards Parraz. "These people are impossible. They have been through impossible times, they are living in an impossible place, and they are doing impossible things day by day. They are mad—_all_ of them. They are quite childish, but they also know when to put their immaturity aside and act their ages. It is not insanity and they are not dangerously crazy. It is quite the opposite. Any person who can lose themselves in their own world, and come back to reality without trouble has more control over their mind than most people ever will. The only mad act I can think of would be to break these people up." He took off his glasses, folded them neatly, and packed up his things.

          Meida and Parraz looked absolutely flabbergasted. Even Meida couldn't form words. She just sat there looking like a beached codfish as the relief visibly washed over the room. She had lost this final battle—there was _no_ way that these people were going to be split up.

          Forbes had left and now they were preparing to do the same. They left the elderly couple stupefied, but Sora was the last one out. Before he left, he merely said, "Some things are just meant to be—and ten of them just left this room."

                                                                                                             ~*~

Wow. That actually wasn't too shabby, methinks. Anyway, it's late, now, so I'll post this and totter off to bed, even though it's Friday and I don't have to get up for anything in the morning. Please review this chapter! I'll try and get something fluffy posted in the future, I _promise!_

—the VL          


	5. Dear Sis

Every TV show has a cheesy flashback episode, so I guess every fic has a cheesy flashback _chapter._ And here it this one's. I hope it turns out all right, and please review and make me happy! ^_^

Summary: It's been discovered that it's easier to send mail through to other worlds than it is to send people—so at least _some_ sort of communication can be kept between friends and relations. Kaze writes a letter to her older sister, telling her of everything that's happened and what's been going on, and, of course, of her new and slightly screwed up life in Traverse Town.

No… no more disclaimers. I've run out of insults! *sob*

~~~ = flashback

= letter breaks and present-action begins

the letter is in quotes

                                                                                                             ~*~

"Dear Sis,

It's been way too long since I've written to you. What with the FearFeeders and my trying to find a life to live, I've lost track of time. Hard to be believe that it's been over a year and a half since we've seen each other! And depressing, too. I've made friends, but they aren't you—I miss you. You were all I had left… but I didn't scrounge up paper and a pen and steal time away behind the café to tell you that. I just wanted to write to you to tell you how I'm doing and to stop you worrying.

          I know you didn't get to anywhere else—call it a hunch, a sixth sense, or just a lucky guess, but the portal that brought the FearFeeders didn't take you. I suppose it only took the people who were obliviously curious. In any case, I have ended up in a very small, dead-end town called Traverse Town—thus named because when the Worlds were open, no one really _stayed_ here. They just sorta… passed through. But I've decided to stay. At first it was because I thought this place was full of suckers (which it is, but I can get to that in a moment) who would really be easy to steal from. Turns out, one of them caught onto me as soon as I got cocky and left my old calling card—I'd been framing her for everything, and she went thief-hunting and found me. Made me swear that I'd get a job and stay away from thievery in exchange for her keeping quiet. Made me return everything, too. But I guess it's okay.

          It's been about six months now, since I started working for a man named Cid, and the girl that caught me and made me become a working slob actually turned out to be pretty nice. Her name is Zephyr and even though she's nearly nineteen years old, and I'm turning eighteen in a few weeks, I'm still bigger than she is, so it's nice to know that I sort of have some kind of have a little power over her. Still, she seems to reign supreme over most everyone. She uses intimidation, and as she has said before, she has never really had to go past threatening anyone. The idle threat is her best friend.

          There are other people here, as well—three other girls named Aerith, Kairi, and Yuffie, and more men than we know what to do with. Cid is one of them—he's my employer. Cloud (weird name, I know) belongs to Aerith, Sora belongs to Kairi, Leon is property of Yuffie, and Zephyr has Riku wrapped around her little finger. Sometimes it's like living in a very trashy romance novel, and sometimes everyone bans together to screw people up so badly that the entire police force would be upon us—if there _was_ a police force."

~~~

"Are you _sure_ this is a good idea?" Kairi asked. "I mean, a week ago we almost got broken up for acting like a bunch of five-year-olds." She sighed, resigned. Aerith was not present but everybody else was in favor of taking advantage of the fact that Parraz had gotten so upset that their group hadn't been split that he was drinking and drinking and showing no signs of stopping.

          With some bribery (they had all chipped in fifty Munny) they managed to get behind the bar and gain control of the bottles. Grain alcohol that Cid made replaced the half-and-half watered down stuff that Parraz had been drinking. He never noticed when he drank it, and had downed three shot glasses of it before he got wicked drunk and passed out. Zephyr produced a ball of twine ropes and tied his ankles to a bar stool and waited until closing time and everyone was out of the bar. Once everyone was gone, Parraz had started to wake up. As soon as they knew he was listening, Kaze yelled, "Fire!"

          Desperate to try and save his ass, Parraz tried to stand up only to trip on his own feet from being tied to the bar stool. He couldn't get up and it was a full five minutes before he figured out what had happened to him. Afterward there was no risk of them being caught or hurt because of it because the older man was far too drunk to do anything—or remember it later, for that matter.

~~~

"It was no concern of _ours_ what happened to him afterwards, but all I can say is that I don't envy the hangover he must've gotten after we pulled that one on him. Serves him right for prying, but nothing says he won't try again. That's just the way he is, you know? Some people just aren't happy unless they're making other people _miserable._ To think that they would have broken up some of the cutest couples I've ever seen. And what with Mama and you being midwives, we've seen a _lot_ of couples—so that's saying quite a bit.

          Sora and Kairi are sometimes Siamese Sweethearts attached at the lips, the arms, or whatever below-the-belt places you can think of. But as long as they aren't at it like bunnies, they're cute together. From what I gather, they've known each other since they were kids, and now they're eighteen—almost nineteen. (I'm the baby around here… shame, too.) Sometimes you walk in or around on them sucking each others lips off in a dark room or an alley. It gets them in trouble but the laughing and teases they get from it tones them down so they at least keep their clothes on until they get inside. I'd think it would be awkward to be with someone that you've known since childhood—wouldn't you know them way to well to be lovers? It'd kind of be awkward. Or _very _awkward. But it's none of my business, though. They still make a cute couple.

          Cloud and Aerith are older—they're married so what they do is their business and nobody can get them for it, but it doesn't mean that we don't try. Especially Zephyr. Even though Cloud is totally stoic most of the time, and Aerith is easygoing and very difficult to anger, that girl always knows _exactly_ what to say and when to say it to get on their _very_ last nerve—not that it's a bad thing, of course. There's little else to do here but for teasing each other. Aerith's not had any babies yet, but if she ever does, I'll let you know. I think I can handle it, but I'll have to, because as far as I know, there are no other healers or midwives around here except for me. Well, she's a healer, but if she's in labor, I don't know if she'll be any help for herself. Actually, that thought it comical. If the prospect of it wasn't so frightening, I think it would be positively hilarious.

          I think the cutest of all of them is Leon and Yuffie. They've had all hell about their relationship because he's so much older, but it's only a nine-year age difference. You and I have seen wider age gaps, partly because around home, men would take wives just as soon as they could breed, which in some cases was as young as thirteen or fourteen, but I haven't mentioned that here yet. I don't think I will. But anyway—Yuffie just turned twenty-one, and Leon is twenty-nine (so it's not _fully_ a nine-year gap) and they make such a cute couple that it almost makes you feel all fluttery and warm inside. (Unfortunately, those are also the same symptoms as a stomach virus, so watch your step.) They are the only couple I know of who _fight_ so much! They argue a lot, but they always kiss and make up in the end. It always goes the same: kiss and make up—and then out.

          Lastly, there's Riku and Zephyr. They seem a cool relationship when you don't know them, but I think I know better. It's just a hunch, though. Sometimes I'll see her walking about with red marks on her neck or by her shoulders and her lips are all bruised, but I don't pay any attention. Every so often, a shirt will be miss-buttoned or _missing,_ but that's not of any interest to me. Other times, Riku'll have bite marks on his neck, but I don't question anything—he could have just been roughhousing with one of the dogs. What people do in their own bedrooms is none of my business—but hot _damn_ would I love to catch them doing something _besides_ kissing. Everyone else has been. Either they're _really_ inconspicuous and neither screams (unlikely) or they did it once and never again (even _more_ unlikely.) What I think it actually may be is locking the door and a soundproof room."

Kaze looked out from her hiding place and a grin formed on her face. Nearby she could see the couple she had just mentioned. She watched them getting more and more heated. She wondered when she should give her position away and humiliate them, but to her dismay, Riku stopped what he was doing just as he had her shirt unbuttoned. She sighed. Perhaps they knew of her plan and stopped just before anything happened. Smart kids they were.

          "Hey, Kaze."

          _"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" _She leaped into the air and spun to look for who had come up behind her. None other than Riku and Zephyr, leaning over the wall behind which she was seated.

          "My _God,_ you almost _killed me!"_ She shrieked. "Why do you always _do that?"_

          "Because you're entertaining to watch when you jump like that," Zephyr said.

          Riku leaned and murmured in her ear, "So're you."

          "But I bite."

          _"Very_ true," he nodded as he spoke.

          "Whatcha writing?" Zephyr asked her friend.

          "None 'a yer business!" Kaze snapped. "Now why don't the two of you scram and go play 'Bunny Rabbit' somewhere?"

          At this remark, two faces burned red, and both started to walk off. Zephyr turned last minute and threatened, "You realize I still have the dirt on you about being the thief. They may still want to get their hands on whomever it was, you know."

          Kaze's face turned white. "You… _wouldn't…"_

          "In a heartbeat."

          The blue-eyed girl snorted. "Fine, then. Go… play 'doctor' together or something."

          "Now _that_ I can deal with," Zephyr glanced back at Riku, who was calling for her to hurry up. "Later, Kaze."

          She watched her friend leave and sighed a little. She was smiling despite herself—although Zephyr had been the one framed for the things _she_ had done, she hadn't held it against her. She seemed to have grasped that it was the life she had known. Living with only her mother and older sister, and eventually just her older sister, stealing for food had become a way of life for her. It was how she survived. The habit had not yet been broken, but she refrained from it as much as she could. Even so, every once in a while, something would go missing and nobody would know where it had gone. When word got about to Zephyr, though, it usually came back. It was surprising that no one had figured a pattern yet.

"Sorry about that, Sis. That was Zephyr. I think you would like her. She's a bit—no, a _lot—_of a smartass with a big vocabulary, sharp teeth, and a sense of humor. She'd never actually hurt anyone though. Only the people that threaten any of us. By 'us' I mean me, Cid, Cloud, Aerith, Sora, Riku, Yuffie, Leon, Kairi, Zephyr, and me. She's quite defensive of her friends—from what I've been told and have just heard, she's bitten people and left permanent marks because they said or did something that upset her… or they flirted with Riku. She borders between protective and possessive when it comes to him, but at least it's nice to know that she really does love him that much. A twisted Romeo and Juliet.

          It's really not so bad here… most of the time, I'm off of work because with the work that Cid is in (mostly Gummis) there's not much business. Good thing everyone is acquainted with the owner of the café and we get our meals for free—otherwise we would be in some serious trouble, and I would have to go back to eating in the mess tent where most people who don't have the Munny to pay for meals all the time eat. It's not unlike a youth hostile, only this food hardly even qualified as 'food,' and I used to have to eat there. Nine times out of ten, I had to do a postmortem or an autopsy on what I was eating to distinguish what it was and why it was laying on my plate. One time they served octopus. Normally I have nothing against seafood, but there's just something about a dinner that is suctioned firmly to the plate that makes my appetite just sort of… drift away. Needless to say, I think I'm more than happy to be eating with everyone here now.

          Back home, everyone has their social position and everyone keeps mostly to themselves… but around here, there are hardly any people and a social ladder would be no bigger than a step-stool, so basically everyone is the same as everyone else, with the exception of a handful of people who think that they are better than everyone. Whatever—let them think what they want. It makes it a _lot_ easier to play nasty tricks on them. Not that I _ever_ initiate any of them. Oh no, never me…"

~~~

Cocky people got on Kaze's nerves more than _anything _else in the world. So the prospect of getting even with the rich bitch and her posse was appetizing. The girl had been whispering and giggling at Zephyr and herself as they were arguing about something, and their argument was soon forgotten. Usually, people's comments bounced off of them harmlessly—water off of a duck's back. But these were comments that they couldn't ignore—_especially_ Zephyr. The girl who was talking was yammering about Riku, whom she had her eye on. It had taken a great deal of force to keep her from taking a bite out of the stone sidewalk, and eventually the pair decided that taking revenge on the posse of girls would be best.

          Zephyr had a talent for finding snakes hiding in the garbage behind the café, because that was where mice lived, and the snakes ate mice. She gathered up a few and stored them together in a pillowcase and put the pillowcase in her shirt to keep the snakes warm and active. Kaze had been in charge of baiting the girls and getting them to a place where the snakes could be released from an underground storm drain that Zephyr hid in. Kaze soon joined her.

          "They comin'?" Zephyr whispered, removing the squirming bag from her shirt.

          "They should be soon," Kaze whispered back.

          "Good… these suckers are starting to get real anxious."

          A herd of squealing girls soon arrived. Zephyr sent a quizzical look at her friend, and she leaned in and whispered, "I sort of 'accidentally-on-purpose' muttered something about Riku being along here soon, hoping to see one of them."

          Zephyr raised her eyebrows, hoping beyond hope that Riku wouldn't by chance wander up and blow their scheme sky high… fortunately, he didn't, and she slowly drew snakes out of the bag one by one. Four snakes slithered out of the storm drain grate, moving quickly over the stone sidewalk and heading straight for the girls for their body heat. Two seconds later, there was an unhealthy level of decibels of shrieks coming from that direction. Both young women covered their ears and tried hard to keep from laughing—people were such cowards whenever they saw snakes and neither of them could ever figure out why, albeit Kaze wasn't too fond of them when they were squirming into her shirt.

          "You know something? I nearly feel sorry for them," Zephyr said as they wandered back to the café where the heater was running. She hugged herself to ward off the cold, and pushed the café door open with one shoulder. Once inside, someone bombarded her from behind, and she didn't have to turn around to know that it was Riku. Maybe she didn't _totally_ feel sorry for those girls…

~~~

"Like I said before—some of our antics would have a police force on our tails most of the time if there _was_ a police force. Happily, there isn't, so we're all out of hot water as far as that is concerned. And in any case, we never actually do harm to anyone. We really just do things as pranks. If only our victims would realize that and stop trying to sue us for all we're worth…

          It's been several pages since I've said I've missed you—it's six pages later, and I miss you even more. I know we'll be together again someday, but I would rather not get into that. I don't really like being sad. Remember what old Mistress Fennery used to say? 'No use getting worked up over things that will take too long to fix.' When she said it, I thought she was being insensitive. But now I see she was right. Life's too short to sweat the small stuff.

          I suppose I could use to end this letter now before I use up the last of this crayon. I really need to hide all of my pencils so that no one else uses them. Mostly it's Cid who steals them to draw obscene pictures on the backs of drink receipts from the café. After they've been used to draw that, there's really not much else I want to do with them…

          In any case, I guess it's about time I let you get back to doing whatever it was you were doing before. I'll write again soon, I promise.

                                                                                                         Love,

                                                                                                         Kaze"

The post-Gummi was ready to roll. Quickly, Kaze sealed her letter, wrote the address, and scrambled for a World Stamp so that the sorters would know which world to send her letter to. After a mad search for one, she finally got her letter off and watched the computerized, unmanned ship leave out the world doors.

          "Hey, Kaze," Zephyr said. Kaze smiled crookedly. She was thinking of her sister and how much she missed her. "Why the long face?" Her friend asked. "And you were scrambling pretty badly before. You shouldn't strain too hard—you know the post-Gummi comes every day at the same time, and if there's one thing I learned being Cid's assistant is that there's no paperwork that's so important that it can't wait for tomorrow."

          Blue eyes watched the doors close, and the girl smiled crookedly and looked at her friend. "Yea," she said, thinking of her sister again. "I used to think that, too." With that, she wandered off.

                                                                                                         ~*~

Very short fic, I know, but I have my ideas for another story, and this one is an L/Y story! Yay! I love L/Y's—what about you guys? Of course you do, dammit. Because I said so! Hahahaha! Okay, you know the drill—read, review, and I will get the chapters up as quickly as I can. Another "Dear Sis" letter might be making an appearance as well, and it will be short, like this one. But I'm not sure. Anyway, enough of my yammering. Shut up, VL!            


	6. Stupid Cupid, Take Better Aim

Whoo! I'm starting on a new chapter very early! I'm sorry about the order of my chapters being screwed up—I don't know why FanFiction did it after I took out the Author's Note chapter. It just did—I'm working on getting it fixed, though! So just hang in there. Anyway—I figured that Traverse Town needed more than just the three Districts that were in the game, so I decided to make Outer Districts; those are places where produce is grown, where there are other, bigger homes, and an R+R (Rest and Recreation) Center. Just to let you know, as said Districts will probably be making appearances outside of this chapter.

Summary: Cid left for a time to the Outer Districts, only to return to his humdrum life with a lovely, young girlfriend that has eyes only for him—and for every other sexually functional male on two legs! All but Cid himself realize this, and it becomes the responsibility of his companions to make sure that no one gets hurt as they break the news to their over-the-hill pilot.

No… I can't believe it. This can't be happening—I've run out of insults for those who still need disclaimers! _My life as a writer is over!_ NO!

                                                                                                         ~*~

Kaze locked up the accessory shop and put the key into her pocket, then huddled herself more deeply into her jacket. It was colder now than it had ever been in Traverse Town. The temperature had thudded to two below zero and the air was bone dry, making wind-chapped skin crack and bleed from the cold. Kaze herself was wearing leggings underneath her jeans, two shirts, three pairs of socks, and she had lined the inside of her coat with rabbit skins to insulate it. Even so, her face was still exposed to the wind and freezing.

          Quickly, she made her way over to the café, where all of the ovens she knew were on and it would be considerably warmer in there than it was outside, or even inside Cid's shop with its' one tiny fireplace. She passed someone as she walked—a young man around her age named Paxon, called Pax.

          "Kaze, is that you?" He asked, voice muffled from his scarf around his neck. Kaze turned and looked for the source of the voice that had called her name. She saw who it was and nodded. Without saying anything, she beckoned him to follow her into the café, and shut the door behind them.

          Inside was much warmer, although a few people had kept their jackets on to keep warm. Three townspeople, plus Cloud, Aerith, Kairi, Yuffie, Riku, Sora, Leon, and Zephyr were crowded into the small café, each doing something to keep busy. Riku was limited on his range of motion because his girlfriend had fallen asleep in his lap. Like Kaze, Zephyr was also wearing layers, and beneath her sweatshirt, she had several rabbit skins. The skins belonged to her, but she was nice enough to lend them to her friends and to her lover when they needed them, but she was all out of them by now, and other people had made do with stuffing their jackets with towels and flat pillows.

          Pax immediately made his way over to the nearest source of heat and warmed his frozen hands. He had been helping Kaze lately since Cid left to visit the R+R Center in the Outer Districts. He was nice enough about it, but where he had come from was anyone's guess. He had just started helping Kaze out because he felt sorry for her having to take care of the shop all by herself, although Zephyr did do some things for her when she herself got the time, although she too was swamped with work because of the cold weather coming through.

          The young man couldn't have been more than eighteen; he was tall, but not lanky, and _covered_ with freckles on pale ivory skin. His hair was dirty blonde and his eyes were very light brown—so light that they were nearly yellow.

          "Any word from Cid yet about when he's coming back?" Yuffie asked as her friend peeled layers of clothes off until she was down to her sweatshirt and rabbit skins. Kaze and Zephyr had come up with a slightly morbid nickname for the skins: WasBunnies. [A/N: I have rabbit skins that I put into my shirt when it's cold out, and that's what I call them—it's a WasBunny because it _was_ a bunny, but not anymore.]

          "No, not yet, I'm afraid. Looks like it's just gonna be me and Pax for a while," she said quietly, kneeling down in front of a stove to warm herself. She sniffled and wiped her hand over her cheeks to try and warm them up—she was still very cold.

          It had been a little over a week since Cid left, claiming that he needed a "mental health" break from everyone, but it was pretty much assumed that he went to the Center just to drink a lot and to get away from the impossible people he lived around. There was no word on when he would come back, but they hoped it would be soon. Some things were just not the same without Cid in the background yelling at them _not_ to do it.

          Kaze wrapped her hands around a mug of hot chocolate. Pax was keeping a watchful eye on her from nearby, like he had taken to doing ever since he had begun to help her in the shop. She rolled her eyes. She couldn't wait until Cid got back and she could have her lunch break back again. She liked to be able to wander about for an hour or so in the afternoons just to get some fresh air, although outside was not somewhere desirable to be of late. Even so, she didn't like having the responsibility of running the whole shop alone.

          It wasn't until well after midnight, and Kaze was barely awake on the couch in front of the fire, that Cid shuffled into the shop, looking worn out and tired. He bumbled right past Kaze and into the very back room. She followed him, wanting to scold him for being gone for so long, and she also wanted to ask him what he had done to wear himself out like that.

          In the back, Cid walked right into the shower stall and turned the water on—with his clothes still on. The girl raised her eyebrows and blinked. What was up with him? She stood outside of the shower door and crossed her arms.

          "You reek of grain alcohol," she declared after a moment of scrutiny and careful observation. "What were you _doing? _I tried to get in touch with you, but you were unreachable!"

          "I was on a week of R and R," Cid replied, face turned to the water. He hadn't noticed that the water had put his cigarette out, or at least it seemed that way. Either that, or he didn't care.

          "Yea, well, you ditched the shop on me for longer than you said you would! You were gone for over a week, and you said that you would only be a few days!" She stomped on the floor.

          "Yer soundin' like Zephyr, now," he said, turning the water off and stepping out of the shower. His boots made a "squelch, squelch" sound as he walked. "She used to baby me all the time. Acted like I was a ten-year-old. Or a teenager without a curfew."

          "You have a curfew?" Kaze tilted her head in confusion.

          Cid laughed at this. "Kaze, I'm a big boy, now—I don't _need_ a curfew."

          "Yea, well, whatever. Change your clothes before you catch pneumonia. It's damn cold here since you left and I dun think it's gonna get any warmer."

          "Yes, ma'am," he said, fake-saluting her.

          Kaze sighed and turned to go to bed. She wondered, not for the first time, what this man did with himself before she and Zephyr had shown up to make sure he didn't do anything terminally stupid. Aerith probably kept her eye on him, she decided.

_"Cid Highwind, what in hell have you been doing this past week?"_ A very disgruntled Zephyr yelled, storming into his office the next day, barging in on him looking through some photographs. "No one could get in touch with you, we didn't know if you'd drunk yourself _unconscious,_ we didn't know _anything!"_ She stopped right in front of his desk, arms crossed and foot tapping. Standing with him were Kaze, Leon, and Yuffie.

          "All right, siddown, you may as well hear it too," Cid said. She guessed that people had gradually started to walk in as he was bullied into telling by Kaze. Since the tiny office had no more chairs left, she sat on the edge of his desk and waited.

          "So, anyway, what were you saying before Zephyr stormed in?" Yuffie asked.

          "Okay, guys, you'd better siddown," he said, sounding flustered.

          "We _are_ sitting," the ninja replied.

          "Oh. Well, then, I'd better siddown. Wait—_I'm_ already sitting. Okay, I'll stand then," he got up, sat back down, got back up and walked in circles, and sat back down again.

          "Cid, tell us, before I put that cigarette out on yer—" Kaze began, but Cid interrupted her.

          "Okay… here it is: I'm in love."

          Four pairs of eyes blinked in disbelief. No one said anything.

          "Hello?" Cid snapped his fingers.

          "In love," Leon said, point-blank. "You?"

          "Yes, me!" He sounded like Sora, now, when he would talk about Kairi. Usually, someone would slap him to shut him up, only they all wanted to hear about this girlfriend of Cid's. No one said anything, they just listened.

          "Who is she?" Kaze asked, then she added, "Or _he_ if that's the case."

          "Funny," he growled.

          "So who is it?" Zephyr asked.

          Cid scrounged in his desk for a second a pulled out a photograph. It was of a thin, leggy blonde girl with big brown eyes. She wore a pink skirt and a white tank top and sandals. The four of them all looked at the picture in shock—the girl could not have been very much older than Yuffie.

          "What're you _thinking?"_ Kaze snapped. "She's a _baby!"_ Quickly, she added to Yuffie, "Nothing against you and Leon, of course… she just looks _your_ age."

          "She's not a baby!" Cid snapped up the photograph and put it back into his desk. "She'll be twenty-four in October."

          "Twenty-four?" Leon raised his eyebrows. She was just over half Cid's age, then! [A/N: I believe Cid was about forty-three in Kingdom Hearts, and Other Halves ended about two years after that, which makes him forty-five, plus this takes place a year and a half after that… so, without further ado, I shall conclude that Cid Highwind is near forty-seven years old.]

          "Yea, you got a problem with that?" He asked, looking at him with an evil glint in his eye.

          "No… not at all…" he trailed off.

          "When'd you meet her? And how?" Zephyr asked, shifting her position on the desk.

          "Well, it started in a crowded bar, and there really weren't any tables left, so the waitress asked if I minded sharing a booth with someone. I said I didn't so she led me to the table and _bam! _There she was—Miss Luna Oriana Norad. I tell you, our eyes met, and it was like we'd known each other for our _whole lives."_

          "Yea, 'cept you're one lifetime up on her," Yuffie said casually. Cid didn't even flinch at her comment. He just sighed.

          "Cid, c'mon, snap out of it," Zephyr clapped her hands loudly. "Look, I'm a firm believer of love with no boundaries, but… my God, man, she's half your age!"

          "So what?" He said. "Yuffie was half Squall's age once."

          "When she was _nine!"_ Kaze snorted. "C'mon, what—ugh… ferget it." She buried her face in her hands and sighed.

          "All right, I know it seems a little weird," he told them, pacing back and forth. He just couldn't seem to sit still.

          "More than just a _little,"_ Zephyr amended.

          "Look, I know I'm forty-six years old. And yes, I'm starting to be able to comb my hair with a towel. It's becoming progressively more difficult for me to get up out of bed in the mornings. Hangovers last longer than they used to. I've been seriously thinking of moving my bed into the bathroom to cut back on the mileage." He sighed. "But when I'm with Luna it's like I've thirty again!"

          Four pairs of eyebrows raised at his comment. Cid. Cid Highwind. Their friend, the man who was obsessed with Gummis, the man who sang _loudly_ and off-key in the shower, was in love with a twenty-three year old girl.

          "My God, Cid, she's younger than _Aerith!" Yuffie squealed. "You can't—what's _possible_ interest can she have in you? No offense intended."_

          "Sex," Kaze said before Cid could say anything. She looked at them all staring at her. "What're you lookin' at me like that for? You know it's true."

          "Oh, that's tacky," Zephyr said. "That's _really_ tacky."

          "You guy's'll think different soon enough," he snorted. "She's coming next week." Everyone looked at him suspiciously. "Hey, don't look at me like that!"

          "Where's she staying?" Kaze asked.

          "Stop thinkin' like that! I'll be in my room and I'll have a room booked in the hotel for her!"

          "Yea, now if you excuse us, we'll start diggin' the tunnel," Leon said.

          "Oh, come _on!" Cid growled._

          "Come on what? We aren't doing anything," Yuffie said. She giggled when Cid fumed even more.

          "Out! All of you, get outta here!" He shooed them all from his office.

          "Sheez, touchy, touchy," Yuffie grumbled as she walked out. The four of them filed from the room in a line, and Cid slammed the door just as Kaze left the room, nearly clipping her behind.

          "Hey, watch it next time!" She screamed.

          "Twenty-three years old, huh?" Zephyr said once they were out of range of Cid's office.

          "Yea… seems a little weird," Kaze said. "Even to _my_ standards."

          "Coming from you, that's sayin' a lot," Yuffie replied, kicking a stone. It clattered into an alley.

          "But… _twenty-three?" Zephyr didn't seem to be able to grasp it. "I can't even—no, I __can imagine, I just don't __want to imagine." She shivered, both from the cold and from the thoughts that were buzzing in her head._

          "Well, he's a big boy now. He can do what he wants," Kaze told her.

          "Go find Pax or something, Kaze," Zephyr said. A smug look appeared on her face as she saw her friend's cheeks flush. Yuffie giggled.

          "You know you like 'im, Kaze," she said, giggling again when the flush spread.

          "I do not!"

          "Yes, you do. Otherwise you wouldn't be denying it." Zephyr expertly set her semantic trap.

          "What do you mean, denying? I'm not denying anything!"

          "Ah-_hah!" Zephyr pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Another denial!"_

          Kaze's eyes narrowed and she snorted, looking away from them.

          "Oh, stop sulking, Kaze, you know she was just teasing you," Yuffie said sternly.

          "I'm not sulking," she protested.

          "Yes you are," the ninja replied.

          "I am not."

          "Yes you _are," Yuffie amended. "When you sulk like that, your upper lip disappears. At that remark, she tried to retrieve her upper lip from inside her mouth, resulting in making herself look very strange. Yuffie laughed harder._

          "Stop pickin' on her," Leon said. Despite having not gotten along with Zephyr, he treated Kaze as a younger sister for whatever reason. Kaze stuck her tongue out at Zephyr.

"…so we've gotta be on our best behavior and not screw this up for Cid… after all, he might score—ouch!" Yuffie rubbed her head where Kairi had smacked it. "What'd I say?"

          "Don't give us images like that of Cid!" The redhead snapped. Sora had a sick look on his face as well, as did Riku and Zephyr, but Cloud was trying not to laugh at it.

          "Fiiiiine," Yuffie mumbled, rubbing the spot on her head. Kaze suddenly gave her a good whack on the other side of her head, harder and far more audible than the one Kairi had given her. _"Hey!" She clutched her head in both hands. "All right, the first one I deserved, but __what the hell was that for?" She hissed._

          "Symmetry," Kaze replied with a shrug. Somebody burst into laughter at this comment: Pax had snuck in, as well. She frowned and stood staring at him with her arms crossed. "Pax, what're you doing here? Why're you walking in all the time?"

          "Sorry," he said, running a hand through shaggy hair that desperately needed to be cut.

          "Let the poor boy in. He's probably half frozen from being outside," the ever-concerned Aerith said. It was true—Pax looked like he had been standing outside for a while. His nose and cheeks were whipped pink from the cold and his lips had a blue tinge to them. [A/N: That happens, you know.]

          "Whatever," Kaze muttered, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, what were we saying?"

          "Cid… Luna… visit… don't screw this up for him…" Zephyr said in disconnected words. "I know symmetry fits into there somewhere, but I'm not really sure where."

          "Ouch, my _head…" Yuffie groaned. Kaze had given her a pretty hard whack._

          "Oh, yea, there was where it fit in…" the gray-eyed girl murmured. "Okay, so what else do we have to look out for?"

          "Try not to say anything stupid around her, okay? She's mostly our age but that doesn't make her our _target," the ninja warned them._

          "Did Cid tell you to say that mainly because of me and Miss I-Have-No-Upper-Lip-At-The-Moment?" Zephyr jerked her head towards Kaze, who was sulking again.

          "Well… actually, I think it was directed at all of us because we're sort of…" she trailed off, unsure of the words to use.

          "Heinous bitches?" Kaze supplied.

          "That works."

          They heard a jeep drive up outside, and all ten people piled at one of the two windows to look out and see who it was. A man was driving the jeep, but sitting in the passenger's seat was a young woman with blonde hair, attired in a blue and pink dress.

          "What is it with blondes and the color pink?" Kaze asked.

          "Hey!" Cloud planted his fists on his hips.

          "What?"

          "I'm not wearing pink!"

          "Those hickeys on your neck say otherwise," the girl said bluntly.

          "What the—?" He quickly pulled his collar up and around his neck, unable to check for himself if the supposed marks were actually there or not. Assuming that they were, he did not want them showing.

          "Whoa—lookit that!" Sora was pressing himself to the window, and was shoved into it even harder when three people behind him tried to get a look out the window. "Ow! Hey, get _offa me!" He squirmed out from under the pile._

          Outside, Cid had greeted the young woman and was helping her out of the jeep. Like a gentleman helping a lady from a carriage.

          "Go on, Kaze, he's gonna ask you to take her things anyway," Zephyr said. Kaze nodded and slipped rabbit skins underneath her sweatshirt and pulled on her parka. The hood went up and she went outside, followed closely by Zephyr, Yuffie, Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

          They watched as Cid yelled for Kaze to come and get the bags just as Kaze was standing right by the bags and saying at the exact moment, "I've got the bags."

          The young blonde turned and looked down at Kaze, who was only slightly taller than Zephyr. She smiled a wide, white smile. "And _you,"_ she said. "You just _have to be Kaze," she chirped._

          "Uh, yea… I just have to be," she answered nervously, seemingly intimidated by this woman's perkiness.

          "No one else _wants to be," Zephyr said casually, sitting on a crate that someone had cast aside against a wall._

          "Zephyr!" Cid hissed. He glared venomously at her, but instead of saying something, he turned to Kaze and said, "Would you take her things to her hotel room? Here's the key." He reached into his pocket and tossed it to her. The look on Kaze's face was one that suggested she was wondering what her employer was thinking—her hands were entirely full with Luna's bags, but the look left her face so she could use her teeth to catch the key. With some struggle, she managed to wander off and get to the hotel whilst Cid led Luna inside.

          "Oh, she's just _adorable. You just wanna take her home and cuddle her!" She said, meaning Kaze._

          "Yea, we do that all the time," Zephyr said. Kairi grabbed her hand and crushed the fingers together, making her drop to her knees in pain. She pried her friend's hand from her own and stood up, flexing her fingers. She had a stronger grip than she gave her credit for. "You almost broke my fingers!" She hissed.

          "And your point is…?" Kairi asked casually.

          "Come on, don't be mean," Riku reprimanded her. He draped an arm around Zephyr's shoulders.

          "Oh, like she's _never done that to me!" The redhead hissed._

          "I haven't," the older girl spat. "I just swat you when you get on my nerves." She glared at her. As if on instinct, Riku reached behind her and held her arms in place.

          "Don't even," he whispered in her ear. She sighed and wriggled out of his grip.

          "That girl is just a _baby!" Yuffie whispered, unsure if Cid would be able to hear them. She almost screamed it but managed to keep it to herself._

          "Did you guys see what _I just saw?" Leon had pulled his heavy down jacket on and come out to join them._

          "Yea, and I kinda wish I didn't," Riku said, and scrunched up his face.

"Look, what Cid does is his business. His sex life is none of _our affair—no pun intended," Aerith reprimanded later on. They were crowded into the café well after closing time and had promised to shut off the ovens and lock up once they decided to leave._

          This night had been colder than any of the others—the temperature had gone even lower, and someone, as an experiment, had poured a glass of hot water off of a balcony outside. It froze into ice crystals before it hit the ground. No one went outside unless they had to after that.

          "Even if it _was any of our business… I don't think anyone would __want to meddle. I mean, he's Cid. If anyone walked in on him and that kid, we'd be scarred. For __life!" Zephyr sighed and curled herself tighter inside her jacket to stay warm, even though she was sitting with Riku and also wrapped in a blanket._

          "Oh, that's positively disgusting to ting of," Yuffie grumbled. She, too, tried to warm herself up. She thrust herself backwards and into Leon, who didn't look like he was any warmer than anyone else.

          "Oy, come on, it isn't like _you've never done anything rabbit-like," Kaze growled._

          "But this is _Cid we're talking about!" Sora protested. "The guy who's been like a babysitter for us since we moved here. Remember _that_ Cid?"_

          "Longer for us," Yuffie amended. "We've known him for for_ever."_

          "Could someone please change the subject before I get sick?" Leon asked. He _did seem to have an ill look on his face._

          "Fine by me," Kaze grumbled. "I don't like her anyway. I dunno why, I just don't. I can't explain it—I just… she… _grr!" She kicked a wall._

          "Ah, don't sweat it, Kaze," Zephyr said. "I don't like 'er, either. She gives me this icky feeling. Not unlike that feeling you get just before you puke." On this comment, Riku backed away from her, looking suddenly nervous. "It was just an analogy, dear. Nothing literal."

          "You sure?" He asked.

          "Well, _I don't like her, y'know," Kairi said._

          "Or me," Sora added in. "I don't think _any_ of us do."

          "I know I certainly don't," Aerith said. Everyone stared at her. Coming from their Flower Girl saying that she blatantly disliked someone was _quite_ a lot, as Aerith usually got along well with everyone. "Stop staring at me like that—you're making me nervous!"

          "Touchy," Kairi muttered. The very idea of Luna staying with them for nearly a week was setting everyone on edge, as none of them liked her. There was something about the young woman that made them all wary of her, but the most frustrating thing about it was that no one really could pinpoint what it was.

          "Uh-oh," Cloud had his nose to the window and was looking out. "Here comes trouble."

          "But Aerith's already inside," Kaze joked. She, too, went to the window, only for her smile to drop when she saw Cid leading Luna into the café. Who invited them in, anyway? What was worse was that they couldn't just skip out and hang in the Waterway. Even though the ice was thick enough for even Cloud to stand on, it was bone-cracking cold inside of it, so everyone kept clear of the place.

          Zephyr grumbled incoherently as the door opened and Luna stepped inside, followed closely by Cid. Nine venomous looks settled upon her, but neither she nor Cid noticed.

          "So, anyway, this is the café… pretty much the hangout spot for everyone," Cid explained. Luna, as always, was perky about it.

          "Oh, it's just _adorable. This whole _place_ is adorable—I love it!" She chirped happily. She looked towards where everyone was crowded around a heating vent and shivering and grinned. "Hi, everyone."_

          They muttered a barely-audible "hello" back to her, not really in the mood to try and get along with her. The cold weather was putting them in some nasty moods. But when Cid brought her over to sit with them, they had no choice but to try and be nice to her. Before she sat down, a bit of dialogue was exchanged before she was in earshot.

          "Okay, we don't have to be _nice to her… not really," Yuffie said. "All we've gotta be is polite. That means no biting, no hissing, no spitting, no swearing, and __especially no bad jokes—__Kaze!" She directed her last statement at the black-haired-blue-eyed girl._

          "Not _all of my jokes are distasteful," she said calmly._

          "That's right—some are in Latin," Zephyr said. Sora snorted but kept himself from laughing loudly. Luna sat down near them.

          "Hi!" She piped cheerfully. Zephyr nearly gagged. "We were never properly introduced—I'm Luna Norad. Whoa are all of you?"

          They each introduced themselves, with exception of Kaze, whom had already been introduced earlier, and Leon, who had fallen fast asleep.

          "Someone wake him up and tell him to go to bed," Cloud said when they got tired of talking over the sleeping man's muttering in his sleep.

          Zephyr opened her mouth to say something, but Kairi covered it before something obscene could pop out. "Don't even bother," she told her friend sternly. She snorted and peeled her hand away.

          "So… where are you from?" Aerith asked, trying to be polite. There was _something that they didn't like about her. They just wished that they could pinpoint it so that they could warn Cid._

          "Oh, my family moves around a lot—we hardly stay in one place for long," Luna answered.

          Quickly, Kairi's hand covered Zephyr's mouth as Zephyr's hand covered Kaze's. As the evening wore on, Sora was unnerved as Luna's eye never left him. She was always fluttering her eyelashes at him or smiling too sweetly or winking every so often. He got up and moved several times, only to learn that Luna could twist just about every way imaginable to look at him. Kaze got fed up with the girl and managed to escape by saying that she had some things to take care of in the storeroom in the back of Cid's shop. Yuffie escaped with Leon not too long after when she shook her love awake and led him off to bed.

          Cid got up to get a drink, and after curiosity got the best of him, Sora asked Luna, "So… what do you think of Cid?" Little did he know, Cid was standing nearby. He glared at the young man with fiery eyes.

          "Sora," his growled in a low voice. "May I talk to you for a moment about your possible and _probable execution?"_

          "Oh, but that's _private," Luna giggled. Zephyr rolled her eyes—even Kairi was getting fed up. Finally, Zephyr got up and tapped Riku's shoulder. The dozing silver-haired young man was snapped out of his trance._

          "What?" He looked up at his girlfriend, who had stood up.

          "C'mon. Lets go—before you fall asleep." She tossed him his jacket. On their way out, Kaze opened the same door and hit her in the forehead.

          "Hey, are you okay?" She looked to see if her friend was all right. She had a hand to a bump on her head, but other than that, she was fine.

          "Thanks a lot," she mumbled. "Now I've got frostbite _and_ a headache." Despite her words, she was grinning—probably because she now had a valid excuse to skip out of there.

          "Here, I'll walk you back," Kaze said. Once the doors were closed and they were outside, she said in a lower voice. "Good, now I can talk to you—I came to come and get you in the first place."

          "No, wait, don't tell me," Riku said, sarcasm dripping in his words. "You were snooping in Luna's things and came across three bags full of skimpy lingerie made mostly out of lace?"

          "No…" her voice trailed off. "Close, though."

          "So you were snooping—what did you find?" Zephyr asked. "Oh, no, if you found _any form of contraceptive, don't tell me. Please, _please_ don't tell me. I'd like to be able to sleep without nightmares."_

          "Well, then, that eliminates the reason why I came to get you," the younger girl said.

          "You found—" Riku started off yelling, realized where he was, and then quieted his voice. "You found… wait a second… why were you snooping in the first place?" He looked suspiciously at her.

          "I wasn't snooping, I swear. I was putting her things away and one of the cases fell open and _all of this stuff spilled out and I didn't know what to do so I—"_

          "Kaze you were snooping," Zephyr accused.

          "Okay, so I was snooping. But don't you find it a bit odd that she would be carrying about an entire _case full of stuff like that? I mean she's only gonna be here a week."_

          Pause.

          "Actually," Zephyr wrinkled her nose. "It does seem weird." She opened the door to hers and Riku's apartment and was immediately charged by a big, shaggy dog. Sandy did _not like being locked up, but as the alternative was letting her freeze, Zephyr was resigned to do it. Kaze left them on their own and the couple walked into their own room._

          "How can I not like someone but not know what it _is_ that I don't know what I don't like about them?" Riku finally asked, breaking a long silence between them.

          Zephyr shrugged, pulling a sweatshirt on over her pajamas and curling up under the four blankets. Her teeth chattered a second before she answered, "I dunno, but it happens to me all the time. And didja see her looking all flirty at Sora?" Riku nodded. She went on. "I think she's about as faithful as a kid in a toy store."

          "That doesn't make any sense," he told her.

          "Yea, well, you know what I mean… I think she's after something."

          "Duh."

          "Shut up." She put her hands behind her head and started at the ceiling. "I dunno… I just don't want anything to happen to Cid. If she ditches him here, he'll be pretty upset." She rolled to face him "You know what he'll do?"

          "Yes, the same thing he always does when he gets depressed," he replied. "Swill grain alcohol for three days, get wicked drunk, and then run naked through the mess tent without any clothes on."

          Zephyr couldn't help it—she started to laugh. She rolled to her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. She turned back to him and asked, "So should we keep an eye on her? Just to be on the safe side?"

          Riku nodded. "But not tonight," he whispered.

          "Riku, I know what you're thinking, but if either of us sweats, it's gonna freeze on our bodies and become shards of ice," she told him. After a second, she added. "But I don't care."

          A knock at their door made them stop what they were doing and look up at the front door. There was another knock—more like pounding this time—and Riku glanced at the ceiling and mouthed, "Why now?" Zephyr rolled her eyes at him and went to answer it. An enraged and slightly teary Kairi stormed in, slammed the door, and proceeded to yell as many obscenities as she could think of. Zephyr listened politely until she started to repeat herself.

          "Okay, dear, you're done," she told her. Kairi blinked, a few tears falling. "What happened? Siddow, first thing."

          Kairi hiccupped and did as she was told. After a moment, she spilled out a story of why she was so flustered.

          "It started when that Luna girl asked Sora to walk her back to her hotel because she was unsure of how to get there by herself—Cid had to go back and help Kaze with something." She sniffled. "Anyway—I followed them to make sure she didn't make a pass at him, but since it's so dark I couldn't see everything, but the last I saw, she was _kissing him and not making a move to stop her, and—" she let out an anguished yell and hit the wall behind her. "Ouch…"_

          "Okay, okay, calm down, Kairi. And stop hitting the wall before your split your knuckles," Riku instructed. Kairi sniffled again and nodded. She looked at Riku and giggled in spite of herself—he was wearing his pajamas, which consisted of nothing more than boxers and a sweatshirt.

          "Go put some clothes on," Zephyr told him. She turned to Kairi and made her sit down before she began talking. "Okay, so you saw what you saw… why don't you ask him what happened? I mean… good, lord, didn't you see her being flirty with him in the café?"

          Kairi nodded. "I guess so—but why didn't he stop her?"

          Zephyr sighed. This would take a little explaining to get through, and she was tired. "We can talk about this in the morning. Why doncha stay here for the night so you can cool off?" She pressed her hand over Riku's mouth before he could protest her invitation.

          "You don't mind?" The redhead asked.

          "No, not at all." She clenched her hand tighter when Riku moved his mouth underneath her hand. Kairi nodded, and Zephyr found some blankets for her to use on the couch in the other room.

          "So… I guess we were right," Zephyr said simply.

          "Yea, there _is reason enough to panic now."_

          "Trouble is—how're we gonna tell Cid?" She asked.

          "Tough question." He rolled onto his side to face her, even though the room was dark. "Best not to jump to any conclusions, though."

          Zephyr nodded and closed her eyes and went to sleep. Maybe in the morning she would have a clearer picture of what to do about this.

"I hate her, I hate her, I hate her, I hate her, I absolutely _hate her!" Yuffie growled. She barely kept her rage under control. Over the last few days, Luna had made a pass at every male in the town when she was not under the watchful eye of Cid. Her most recent target had been Leon, and Yuffie had been so mad at her that she flew into a rage and hit the side of a building outside, splitting the knuckles on her left hand._

          "I tell you, something's got to be done about her. Someone has to tell Cid—hold _still!" Aerith was trying to bandage up Yuffie's battered hand, but the ninja kept fidgeting and she couldn't get the dressing on it properly._

          "Okay, I'm sorry… go on…" she sighed.

          "Nothing else, really… just that we have to figure out something to do about her. I wish there was some way we could get Cid to realize what she's been doing…" Aerith had been bitter about Luna from the start and had gone from bitter to just plain outraged when she hit on her husband. Luckily for Cloud, Aerith knew that he was resisting her advances as politely as he could without physically picking her up and throwing her out of a window.

          "We still have to draw straws to see who's stuck walking her back to the hotel tonight," Kaze grumbled. Everyone seemed to have gotten a good laugh at her two nights ago, when Pax had been the one to walk her back and she, of course, made a pass at him as well. It seemed to make her bristle, thus proving their theory that she perhaps liked him a little more than as a friend. This night, however, Riku drew the short straw. He sighed heavily, and Zephyr growled low in her throat. She made a mental note to follow them.

          "Hey, where _is she, anyway?" Riku asked. With any luck, he could get out of doing this. No dice—Luna showed up as if like clockwork. She winked at Riku, making him nervous and Zephyr dig her nails into her legs to restrain herself. Everyone pretty much knew what was going to happen now—down do a tee._

          "It's pretty late, and I need to get back to the hotel… does someone mind walking with me?" She asked, all sweetness.

          "I'll go," Riku said, trying not to sound grudging. He wasn't looking forward to this. As he got his own coat, he vaguely noticed that he'd lost track of where Zephyr went. She was probably going to stalk him… he'd have to be on his toes until he shook Luna.

          Riku tried to stay as lighthearted as possible as he walked her back to her hotel room, but doom formed in the pit of his stomach as the front doors came into view. He let the young woman into the building first before he went in himself. Her room was in the back and up a flight of stairs, and once he was outside of it, he paused in his tracks.

          "Riku?" He heard her ask sweetly. He looked down at her warily and met a kiss as he turned his head. He pushed her back by the shoulders, but she kissed him again. He pushed her back a second time and this time kept his hands on her shoulders to make sure that she _didn't make another move on him. He wiped his mouth on the top of his arm._

          "Okay, first I wanna thank you from the bottom of my mouth," he said. "Secondly, we aren't in some cheap motel in the Outer Districts. Thirdly, I've already got a girlfriend—"

          "Not that little black-haired girl, is she?" Luna asked, trying to sound pathetic.

          "There's three girls here with black hair—but Zephyr _is_ one of them. Anyway—I've already got a girlfriend and I wouldn't trade her for anyone. Lastly, one of us loves Cid Highwind—and I think it's me," he held her down by the shoulders again before she could kiss him. "Okay, look, everyone here is connected somehow. We all know that you've been trying to sneak men into your room, and you might have actually done so with a few in the few days you've been here… but most are faithful and I'm no different." He took a few paces away from her. "I'm not gonna say anything to Cid, but you might want to. Either that, or you'll leave. Because I can't speak for everyone. Zephyr is one who might spill to him before you get the chance to."

          With that he walked off, repeatedly wiping his mouth on his sleeves. Had it been anyone besides himself, Zephyr would laugh at the situation, but as it was, he figured it was best that he didn't tell her what had happened. Luckily, Sora was the first person that he encountered on his way out.

          "Psst—hey, Sora!" Riku called quietly to get his attention. The brunette turned to look for his friend, as he had recognized the voice.

          "Hey, Riku. How'd it go?" He asked. Quetly, he added, "Zephyr's back at your apartment."

          "She is?"

          "Yea… so how'd it go?"

          "Miss Luna Oriana Norad just gave me a goodnight tonsillectomy you wouldn't believe," Riku said, spitting to try and get rid of her taste—too much lipgloss and perfume, rough in contrast to Zephyr, who worked around leather and wood and bowstrings all day and never bothered with makeup because it was a waste of time. "So when'd Zephyr leave?"

          "A while ago. She, um…" he paused, for some reason turning red with humiliation before he went on. "She wanted me to give you something."

          "Give me what?" He asked.

          "Ech… shouldn't'a said it…" he trailed off.

          "Give me _what?"_

          "Okay, but let me first tell you that I think she saw whatever happened between you and Luna, and that this is from _her and not _me."_ He swallowed hard and kissed his friend on the cheek before he turned and wiped his mouth and spat on the pavement. "Yuck! I can't believe I _did that!"_ He wiped and spat for a second._

          "You said she saw what happened between Luna and me?" Riku asked, watching with some amusement as Sora tried to rid himself of whatever he may have picked up.

          "Yea," he wiped his mouth. "I think that's what she said."

          "And she wanted you to do that for her?"

          "Well _duh!" Sora snapped. "Why __else would I have done it? Unless it had been Zephyr threatening me with death unless I did, I would have _not_ done it and then lied and said I __had!"_

          Zephyr had seen it, and she wasn't mad. Relief washed over him and he turned to go and find her. "Hey, thanks," he said, turning back to his friend and pecking _him on the cheek without thinking. At this, Sora darted into the back of the hotel where the showers were and turned the water on himself without thinking. He couldn't believe that he'd just kissed another guy. He didn't know whether to cry or barf._

          When he got back to his room, Kairi was standing by the door. When she saw him, she started to giggle. "What happened to _you?"_ She asked him.

          "Huh?" Sora asked.

          "You're all wet."

          "Oh… must be something in the water," he said absently. "I need to change." He squelched into the other room to find some dry clothes.

          Riku was charging towards his _own hotel room, hoping that what Sora said was true, and that Zephyr __wasn't angry at him. He skidded to a stop at the door and hastily unlocked it and threw it open. After a second of glancing around the room to see where she was, he found Zephyr laying on her back on the couch._

          "Zephyr?" He asked cautiously.

          "Hello… I saw the whole thing you know," she said, cutting right to the chase. He swallowed hard. She was using an expressionless voice so he didn't know whether to be relieved or panicked.

          "You heard it, too?" He asked, hoping that she had heard the speech he'd given to Luna.

          "You know as well as I do that I can hear pillow talk in the Outer Districts from here," Zephyr said. She turned back to stare at the ceiling again.

          "So you heard it?"

          She nodded.

          "And you aren't mad?"

          "Why would I be? I saw what I saw, but I know what Luna's been up to since she set foot here. I just hope she gets a clue and gets the hell outta here before the week is out." She sighed and rolled on the couch so she could look at Riku over the arm of it.

          "For someone so protective as you, you really didn't make a big deal outta this."

          "That's because I know you wouldn't do anything."

          Riku grinned. How like Zephyr to say the obvious.

          "Come on," she said suddenly, taking his hand.

          "Wha—? Where're we goin'?" He asked, tripping behind Zephyr.

          "I can't take this anymore; we've gotta go tell Cid what his little girlfriend is doing before he blows what's left of his dignity sky-high."

          Luckily, they bumped into a solemn-looking Cid just outside of his shop as he locked it up. Kaze was walking with him, trying to tell him something.

          "Look, don't tell me I've gotta send her back," he told his assistant. "I already made arrangements for her to go back to the Outer Districts tomorrow, okay? Just… chill out." The look on Kaze's face was one of relief. She hadn't actually told Cid that his so-called "girlfriend" was stalking other guys, and she didn't _want to tell him. She was afraid of what he might do to himself—worse that swilling grain alcohol for days._

          "What did you guys want?" Cid asked Zephyr and Riku when he noticed them standing there. They remembered where they were and snapped to attention.

          "Oh, um… just to say goodnight," Zephyr spun quickly. Cid nodded, and as soon as they were out of view, Zephyr let out a heavy sigh. "That was close."

          "Yea…" Riku said. "I just hope nothing happened. It's bad enough when Cid gets wicked drunk for days."

          Late the next morning, a jeep arrived to take Luna back where she came from. She waved goodbye to Sora, so she figured that she had done a complete 360° turn and was back with the one she started with. Sora nodded politely in her direction and bit his lip to keep from grimacing. Cid watched the jeep leave and sighed.

          "You know, it's kinda funny," he said quietly. "I couldn't wait until she got here, and now I'm glad she's gone."

          Cloud patted his shoulder. "Was for the best… you said it yourself."

          The pilot nodded.

          "Besides," the blonde added. "If you'd sucked yer stomach in one more time, I think your belly button woulda fallen out of your back pocket!"

          _"What?" Cid growled. He smacked Cloud on his shoulder before the swordsman made a run for it, laughing as he ran._

                                                                                                   ~*~

Well, that's another chapter out of the way. Ellyrianna, there is something for you to take your mind off of fasting all day. And as a sidenote and a sneak peek for everyone who's reading this, Pax is, indeed, going to become a regular character, but I am not going to juggle three OC's for a long time. You see, the next chapter will _most likely_ be the last one of this story, but, like "A Day Without Rain," it will be a long one. And before you go yelling and screaming at me, let me point out that "Other Halves" only really had seven stories in it, as well: "Other Halves," "When The Past Comes To Life," "Love Knows No Age," "Carry On, Men," "Let Be What Is Balanced," "Zephyr's Report," and "A Day Without Rain."

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, please review and make me happy! I even know what I'm gonna do with the next chapter, so it won't take me forever and a day to write it! (But right now I gotta go clean my room because my mommy will get mad at me and take away my computer if I don't do it before she gets back from shopping…)           


	7. Yesterday's Heroes

All right… I really don't want to end this story, nor do I want to end Zephyr and Kaze's saga, but I fear that I must. You all knew that this time would come—you just didn't know when. So here it is, meh dears: their last stand. The last story in my Paint The Sky With Stars story. Takes place about a year after the last chapter did. This is how old everyone is now, just so no one is confused: Cid, 47; Leon, 31; Yuffie, 22; Cloud 29; Aerith, 29; Sora, 20; Kairi, 20; Riku, 21; Zephyr, 21; Kaze, 19.

Summary: Something has come over Leon and he has been acting very strange and edgy of late, and it's got Yuffie on pins and needles. Kaze has attracted some attention that she may or may not want, Riku is trying to explain to Zephyr why marriage _isn't_ a waste of time, and Aerith has some news that will knock everyone flat.

Okay, just for this special occasion, I have worked on an insult: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Any who have not yet realized that after I harassed you about it all throughout this story, Other Halves, Terrors, and Heat Wave is not only perpetually ignorant, but should also start running before I come after them with a meat tenderizer and a pair of nail scissors.

                                                                                                             ~*~

Yuffie puffed in the sweltering heat of midday. Despite the lack of sunlight in Traverse, it was still brutally hot—an extreme temperature change compared to a few weeks ago when they were swamped with bitter cold for months. Even so, she was on a hunt for Leon, who had disappeared for the fourth time in three days. She usually didn't worry about him when he went off, but within the last two weeks, her love had been leaving for the entire day and not telling her where he'd gone. He used to do it every once in a while, and that she didn't mind. But he'd been doing it quite often lately, and it was beginning to frighten the young woman. She wondered if he was perhaps seeing someone else, although she didn't think he would be stupid enough to just disappear all day if he was.

          Finally, she gave up and trudged back to the little house and let herself in. She wasn't surprised to note that the house was empty, and she plopped herself down at the table. Doubtless Kaze was working, Kairi was with Sora, Aerith was either shopping or with Cloud, and God only knew where Zephyr had disappeared to. She wondered where Leon had gone. She was worried sick, now, and she just wanted to know where he was and what he was doing. Or perhaps she would just be content with knowing that he was leaving and _why_ he was leaving. She hoped it wasn't because of something she had said or done.

          She agonized over this until the door opened and Aerith stepped in. She was obviously upset or nervous about something—Yuffie could tell from the way she held herself and from the way she looked so pale.

          "Hey, Aerith," she murmured. Aerith jerked, startled.

          "Oh, good, you're here," she breathed, coming to sit at the table. "I've _got_ to talk to someone."

          "About what?" The younger woman asked. "Doncha usually talk to Cloud?"

          "Yes, but this sort of concerns him."

          "What do you mean, 'sort of'?" Yuffie snapped her eyebrows together. "I don't get it."

          Aerith sighed. She figured that she may just as well say it. "I'm pregnant."

          Yuffie's mouth dropped open. Then the corners turned up and she smiled hugely before leaping up to hug her friend tightly. "Aeirht! That's—you're—" she sounded as if she was going to say something more, but she instead just tightened her grip. Aerith wheezed.

          "Yuffie… you're choking me…" she pulled at her friends' arms to try and loosen them. She took the hint ant let her go.

          "When'd you find out?"

          "I'm four weeks late," Aerith said with a shrug. "How can I not be pregnant?"

          "Ah, yes, good point." She paused before smiling again. "So when're you gonna tell Cloud?"

          "That's kind of why I came here." She sighed. "I don't know when or even _how_ I'm going to tell him. I know it sounds so stupid… but it's true. I'm nervous."

          "I'd think he'd be happy," Yuffie said. "Why wouldn't he be?"

          "I don't know, but with Cloud you can never tell. Even _I_ can't and we're _married."_

          Yuffie raised her eyebrows but said nothing. For some reason it was awkward—despite the number of times she had nearly walked in on Cloud and Aerith in fairly delicate situations. Still, she knew her friend would make a great mother, and for a few moments she couldn't really think why she was nervous about telling Cloud. That was, until she realized that if _she_ was pregnant, she's be nervous about telling Leon, too. But perhaps it was because she was so young now.

          The door opened and slammed, and a panting Kaze leaned hard on the door. She was flushed and shaky from running what seemed to be a very long distance. She slid to the floor and sat down.

          "Whoa… what happened to you?" Yuffie asked.

          "You know—sometimes when Cid—gets mad—and he asks, 'Do I look stupid to you?'" She asked, panting as she spoke. Both women nodded and she went on. "Well—whatever you do—don't answer—him." She swallowed, trying to get moisture back into her mouth and throat.

          "Good advice," Yuffie told her. "I'll try an' remember that one." Rolling her eyes, she pulled a chair up and beckoned the younger girl to come and sit with her.

          "Thanks," she panted. Once she got her breath back, she managed to study both Yuffie's and Aerith's faces before coming to a conclusion. She narrowed her eyes and asked, "What's up with the two of you? Both of you seem a little bothered 'bout something."

          The two older women exchanged glances. Kaze was good at this game. Aerith sighed.

          "I'm pregnant," she said. Despite her worry, a flush came to her cheeks and a smile crept over her lips. Kaze's reaction was one of shock. Her mouth was open a little bit before it widened into a huge grin. In a rare display of affection, she threw her arms around Aerith and hugged her.

          "I can't believe it!" She yipped. "Well—actually, yes I can. But, still—that's so great for you!" She paused to pull away before looking at her suspiciously. "Cloud doesn't know yet, does he?"

          She shook her head no.

          "Figured as much," the younger girl said. "You're probably nervous about telling him… but if I was you, I'd just tell him before it's too late and he finds out just by looking at you." She pointed to her stomach. "That ain't gonna stay flat like that forever, y'know."

          Aerith laughed softly and took a sidelong glance at Yuffie, who was smiling, but still looked edgy about something. She frowned suddenly and asked, "Yuffie, what's up with you?"

          The ninja sighed heavily and looked down. "I—Squall's run off again," she murmured.

          "Again?" Kaze asked. "Where's he been going? Do you even know?"

          A headshake was her answer.

          "Do you even know _why?"_ She prodded. At this, she seemed to have struck a soft spot because Yuffie squeaked and sniffled, seemingly trying to hold back tears. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—"

          "It's okay," she choked. "It's just—I don't know why he's been doing this and he hardly talks anymore… it's like when we first met and the only time I ever really saw him was at night because we shared a hotel room."

          "That's right—I remember that," Aerith said quietly. "You even made up a story about me snoring just so you could room with him."

          "Whatcha mean, 'made up'?" Yuffie asked, one eyebrow raised. "I didn't make that up—I just used the facts to my own benefit. You _do_ snore."

          "No I don't!"

          "Yes you do."

          "I do _not!"_

          "Oh, puh-_leeze,"_ Yuffie rolled her eyes. "I kept having to roll you away from the windows so you wouldn't inhale the glass!"

          "Ouch, touché, Female Ninja," Kaze said before she dissolved into a fit of the giggles. When she was finished laughing, she sat up and added on a more serious note, "If it helps, I'll talk to him the next I see him and try to see what's going on. And as for telling Cloud… if I was you I would just tell him. It's not like he's going to do anything bad."

          Aerith nodded slowly after a moment. "I suppose you're right."

          "Of course I'm right," she said in a fairly lofty tone. "I'm _never _wrong."

          Yuffie sighed and shook her head. She soon found herself wondering where Zephyr was. She knew full well that Kairi was with Sora, most likely making out in a booth in the corner of the café or in a dark alley somewhere. She snickered at her own thought. She then imagined Riku and Zephyr doing the same and her snicker turned into a full-fledged laugh.

          "What?" Kaze asked. Yuffie told them what she had been thinking, and her friends soon joined her laughter.

          "You'd best not be laughing at my expense," a venomous voice said from the doorway. Three heads turned to see Zephyr standing in the door, looking a little tousled, her cheeks pink, and her eyes looking a mix of lethargic and blazing.

          "Someone looks like she's been for a nice roll in the proverbial hayloft," Kaze said mockingly. Zephyr growled low in her throat, staring at the younger woman with blazing eyes. Kaze gulped; she should have known better than to antagonize her like that. Extreme heat like this always made her angry and edgy.

          "For your information, I got into a fight," she told them, ending their supposing that she had been with Riku.

          "With _what?"_ Aerith asked, partly worried and partly amused.

          "Well, you know that sign that they keep outside of the generator sheds that say in big bold letters, _'Caution'_?" Zephyr asked, pushing her bangs away from her eyes.

          "Yea—what about 'em?" Aerith tilted her head to one side, obviously confused.

          "Well, they _mean_ it."

          At this comment, the room burst into a fit of laughter, and after a beat, Zephyr joined them, knowing full well that it was, in fact, funny. She pulled a chair to the table and sat down.

          "So what were you talking about? I know you were laughing at my expense, but what were you talkin' about before that?" She asked.

          "Aerith's pregnant," Yuffie blurted out. Her friend's eyes widened and her mouth opened a little bit. Finally, she managed to choke out a sentence.

          "When did this happen?"

          She shrugged.

          "What? How can you _not_ know?" Zephyr asked, frowning slightly and obviously confused. Then a sly smile made its' way onto her face. "Or are you at it so often that you can't keep track?"

          At this, everyone laughed, even Aerith, who decided that it was a bit funny. "When the count gets to two or more kids, pinpointing the _exact_ conception date will be _easy!"_ Kaze giggled. This caused Aerith to blush furiously, knowing that her friend was right.

          "What's Cloud said about it?" Zephyr asked.

          "I haven't told him yet," she replied quietly.

          "You mean you've told _us_ before you tell your own husband?" She tilted her head, and a strange look came over her face. "Strange as this sounds, but I feel honored."

          Aerith nodded, her hands in her lap and looking down at the table. "I don't know what to tell him," she said. "I don't know how he's going to react when I _do_ tell him."

          "Well, he's your _husband_ isn't he?" Zephyr said. "I should think he'd be happy to know it. And excited. Nervous, maybe. He'd be a first-time Daddy. They usually _are_ a bit nervous at first, but you won't know until you tell him."

          "Someone sounds unusually optimistic," Kaze snorted.

          "Well, it _is_ true."

          This brought Yuffie back to thinking about Leon again. She sighed a bit too loudly, and Kaze and Zephyr stopped arguing with one another long enough to look over at her, puzzled.

          "What's up?" The older of the two asked.

          "Leon," was the quiet reply. She sighed again. "He's disappeared again and I don't know where he went."

          _"Again?"_ Zephyr's mouth was agape. "You're usually _inseparable!"_ She protested. "Why'd he leave?"

          Yuffie shrugged. "I dunno. Whenever I ask him about it, he just mumbles at me. It's like he's mad at me or something, or he's in a nasty mood. It's like before the Heartless left!" She pounded her fist on the table and then shook her hand, wincing in pain.

          "Careful, Yuffie," Zephyr put her hand over her friend's. "Don't hurt yourself or anything." She was still frowning, just as confused as everyone else about Leon's actions.

          "Zephyr, you're a lot like Leon," Yuffie said suddenly. "Is there any reason _you'd_ be hiding away from Riku?"

          Zephyr's eyebrows shot up. She thought for a moment before answering. "Well… apart from when we first met and he didn't know me much at all, much less that I liked him…" she trailed off. Yuffie nodded slowly, remembering how much trouble it had been for her friend to admit to Riku her feelings. He had ended up finding out through herself and Aerith. "Apart from then, not really."

          "Whatcha mean, 'not _really'?"_ She asked.

          "There was that _one_ very short period of time ages ago that I was edgy around him, but that was before we—uh… never mind…" she turned an amazing shade of pink and ducked her head low, letting them all on about what she was talking about. "In any case, _that_ can't be the problem with him…" Despite the somewhat serious conversation, her voice held an amused tone.

          Yuffie scrunched up her face in frustration and went to bang her fist on the table again, but Kaze caught her wrist.

          "Don't hurt yourself again. I said I would talk to him. Granted I can find him, and granted he has had a decent night's sleep and can have a coherent conversation," she offered.

          "You mean Leon is capable of _having_ a coherent conversation?" Zephyr asked in mock-awe.

          "Of course he is."

          "All right, but is it an _intelligible_ one?" She asked.

          Yuffie reached out and gave her a good smack upside the head, followed by Aerith and Kaze.

"Squall! C'mon!" Cloud furiously shook his friend by the shoulders, trying to shake him out of his drunken stupor. "C'mon, man, snap _out of it!"_ He shook him again, harder, and pulled him into an upright position when he began to slump over. He shook him again, this time harder, and Cid walked up behind him with a pitcher of water.

          "Any luck yet, kid?" He asked around a toothpick.

          "Does it _look_ like he's conscious?" Cloud growled irritably, turning to face the pilot. "I don't even think he'll know what _year_ it is when he comes to!" He sighed and tried once more to wake Leon up, to no avail. Finally fed up, he tossed him back against the back of the chair and sat down with his head in his hands. "I'm too old for this," he mumbled.

          "Ah, shut up, kid, you're not even thirty yet," Cid picked up the water pitcher again and walked over to where Leon was draped limply over the table. "This might work." He lifted the swordsman up with one hand and flicked water onto his face with the other. Nothing happened. He tried a little more, and still, nothing happened. With a shrug, he tipped the contents of the pitcher out onto the unconscious man, and he shot up as if someone had shot a gun near his ear. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled underneath him and he fell to the ground. With a groan, he pushed himself up with his hands and stared at the ground, dripping all over the floor.

          "What the hell was _that for?"_ He yelled. Then he groaned and covered his ears with his hands. "Oww…"

          "'Bout time you came to," Cloud growled. "I was about ready to get Aerith in here to work some Cure spells on you—'cept that I can't find 'er." He kept his voice low to keep from yelling.

          "Stop screaming so loudly," Leon whimpered, his hands over his ears. "My head is _killing_ me."

          "Pansy," Cid told him with a grin on his face.

          "Shut up, old timer," he hissed. "I have the Hollow Bastion of hangovers right now and all I want is to go home and to go sleep."

          "What's up with that?" Cloud snorted. Leon groaned and clutched his head.

          "Didn't I tell you not to _shout?"_ He said, nearly begging.

          "I'll go find Aerith—Cid, why doncha take him back to his room and let him lay down before he faints?"

          "I can walk—don' hafta walk me like a two-year-old," he fell over a chair and did a rubber-legged acrobatic performance in an attempt to regain his balance before he tumbled to the floor. "Medic."

          Without saying a word, Cid walked over and lifted Leon up and slung him over his shoulder. He was surprisingly strong for someone in his late forties.

          "Go find Aerith," he strained to say beneath Leon's weight. "And while yer at it, tell her to take a look at my back." As he walked out, Cloud could hear him murmuring to Leon, "Kid, you gotta go on a diet…"

          Cloud left immediately after, hunting for Aerith. He wondered why he hadn't thought before to look in the small house that the girls hid in, even though they were hardly girls anymore. They were all full-grown women, despite their antics. When he made it to the small house, the windows were lit—at least there was _someone_ inside who could tell him where Aerith was. He knocked on the door.

          There was a lot of noise inside as four women scrambled to answer the door. Aerith opened it.

          "Hey! I've been looking for you—"

          Someone slammed the door closed. It opened again a second later.

          "Hello." The person at the door now was Zephyr.

          "Um… what was that all about?"

          "What was what all about?"

          "The door slammed."

          "It _did?"_ She blinked. "I didn't see it do that. Must've been blown shut with the wind or something." She stuck her head outside as if looking, but the dead stillness and heat of outdoors made the effect of her excuse lost.

          Cloud frowned. "Were there just the three of you in here?" (Aerith had disappeared shortly after the door slammed.)

          "Yea," Yuffie and Zephyr said at the same time. They knew and respected that Aerith was not yet prepared to tell Cloud that she was pregnant… unfortunately, Kaze didn't.

          "Well, actually, no."

          A frown came over the blonde's face and he looked at each of them before stating, "There's some kinda disagreement here."

          Immediately, the older two said, "No, no."

          Kaze sighed and nodded, saying, "Yes." Cloud blinked.

          "Well do any of you knuckleheads know where Aerith is?"

          Before anyone answered, a very green-looking Aerith stepped into view. She looked tired, as well as sick.

          "What's'a matter? You just throw up or something?" Zephyr asked. She groaned and nodded. "Well, what did you eat?"

          She thought for a moment before replying. "Peanut butter sandwich… an ice cream cone, scrambled eggs, French fries, three cookies, chocolate pudding, a banana, a bagel with cream cheese, a package of those little cheese crackers—"

          "I, uh… I think she meant in the last few hours," Cloud interrupted, looking at her in awe.

          "I know—so did I," she replied.

          Yuffie's eyes were wide. "Zephyr, she eats more than you do!" Zephyr stomped on her foot. Her eyes widened and she hissed through her teeth in pain.

          "Look, Aerith, go home and lie down or something," she commanded. "Even if it's just for a little while. You look like you could definitely use it."

          "I'll take you back," Cloud offered, taking her hand. He turned back to the remaining three. "Kaze, d'you know any cures for hangovers?" He asked last-minute. If Aerith was unavailable and he didn't want Yuffie knowing that Leon had drunk himself unconscious, he'd have to settle for the next best thing.

          "Yea—how come?"

          "Cid needs you. He's in the Accessory Shop now. You think you could go see him?"

          Kaze nodded, thinking that Cid was hungover and needed her help. She left the small house as Cloud did. A moment later, Yuffie was trotting up behind her.

          "Hey, Kaze, wait up!" She called. The younger girl stopped and turned around, waiting for her to catch up. "Mind if I tag along? Maybe Cid can tell me where Leon is."

          "I doubt it, but okay," Kaze said with a shrug. "He's pretty helpless and _hopeless_ when he's hungover."

          Yuffie sighed. Just her luck. But she tagged along, anyway, because she had little else to do. She could always keep an eye out on Aerith, as she knew full well that Cloud was no medicine man, but she decided to leave the couple to their own devices, just in case Aerith told him that she was pregnant.

          A quick stop in the Synthesis Shop let Kaze gather up some bottles of evil-smelling remedies for Cid, and Yuffie opened the trap door for her to hop down. She heard her friend land, and waited a few seconds for her to move out of the way before she could leap. She heard Kaze gasp.

          "Uh-oh… what's this all about?"

          Yuffie frowned. What was going on? She, too, jumped through the trapdoor, and landed on one knee on the wooden floor. She stood, expecting to see Cid laying on the sofa with a cloth on his head and someone's brassiere in his pocket. Instead, she saw Cid standing by the door lighting a cigarette, and Leon laying down on the sofa, looking positively pathetic. His color was gone except for the tinge of green that seemed to be in his face and his eyes were bloodshot.

          "Don't scream so loud," he groaned pitifully. He forced himself to sit up as much as he could, and his mouth dropped open when he saw Yuffie there. It took him three seconds to remember that Yuffie _hated_ when he drank. He rarely did, but every so often he would get stressed out over something or other, drink himself sick, and end up having to be taken care of for days afterwards. Plus, Yuffie always said she didn't like the Leon he was when he was drunk.

          "What did you—?" She frowned, suddenly feeling her legs getting very weak beneath her. She had to sit down. She plopped into a chair on the other side of the shop. Cid had taken his cigarette outside.

          "Here, take this," Kaze handed him a small glass filled with a greenish-brown liquid. He took a drink and spat it out, sputtering.

          "Kaze, that stuff should have an _octane_ rating!" He rasped. "What the hell _is_ that?" He paused. "On second thought, _don't_ tell me what's in it. I really dun wanna know!" He hacked again. Kaze refilled the glass and handed it back to him.

          "This time, ya gotta drink it and keep it," she instructed.

          Yuffie watched him force the remedy down his throat. Why was he _drinking?_ Had he been doing that every time he disappeared? She rubbed her temples, feeling a headache creeping up on her.

          Kaze looked at her friend, sitting in a chair with her head in her hands. She walked over to her and whispered, "I'll leave you two alone."

          She nodded and watched her leave. Once the door was closed, she turned a venomous glare to Leon, who looked terrified along with sick now.

          "You're mad at me… I can tell," he said point-blank.

          "What gave it away, smartass?" She growled. Her face burned and her tongue felt swollen. She could think of nothing to tell him.

          "I suppose you want to know why I was drinking?"

          She nodded, still mostly speechless.

          He opened his mouth to explain, but he closed it, just as speechless as Yuffie.

          "Aren't you gonna say something?" She asked. _"Anything?"_

          "I—I can't."

          She looked at him, wanting to be able to be angry at him, but she couldn't—not when he was so pathetic like this. She sighed heavily. She would have to watch him like a hawk for the next few days, ensuring that he _didn't_ wander off again. But for now, she would have to get him back to the hotel and into bed before he fainted or got even sicker.

          She got up and walked over to him, holding out her hand. "Stand up."

          He looked at her hand, and then up at her with puzzled eyes.

          "Can you get up?" She asked.

          He nodded, attempting to get up and stumbling. She caught his arm and hauled him up.

          "Come on," she told him. Put your arm around me—ouch! Don't lean too hard on me!" She grunted, pushing him up and trying to keep a good grip on him. Getting back to the hotel turned out to be a length of zigzags and Leon stumbling over his own two feet and on Yuffie's as well. She let him collapse as soon as they made it into their room.

          "Thanks," he murmured. He had his hands over his eyes to protect them from the light. He was sensitive still to light and sound and probably would be for a day or so. He squinted at Yuffie getting a cold cloth from the bathroom. She had a scowl on her face still and she looked like she might have shed a few tears.

          "Here," she plopped it down over his eyes. She was so angry with him for drinking and she wanted to be able to just storm out of there and leave him to his own devices, but she just couldn't find it in her heart to do it. She watched him for a moment before sighing audibly.

          Leon said nothing to her. He wished that he could give her a legitimate-sounding answer to his actions, but none came to mind, and he didn't want to tell her the truth—not yet. Although he would have to soon before she got _too_ angry at him… although from the looks of it he might already have been screwed.

          "Hey, where're you going?" He asked.          She had gotten up.

          "Out. Don't expect me back tonight," she told him solemnly. It had taken a lot to do that, and she fought not to yell or cry or run back to him. It was one of those nights to spend in the little house… at least the pantry was stocked with food in case someone got depressed.

          She dragged herself through the hot air, feeling like she was walking through honey. Everything was so slow, and hey eyelids felt heavy even though it was only early evening. She got lost in her thoughts on the way.

          She had never known Leon as a drinker, and she had known him for ages in Hollow Bastion as an acquaintance, in Traverse as a friend and comrade, and for years now as a lover… what was making him do this? Was something wrong? And if something _was_ wrong, what could it be that he wasn't at least telling her some background information? She thought on what Zephyr had said about hiding from Riku when she first met him because she couldn't deal with her feelings for him, and then again be skittish around him for a while before she lost her virginity.

          But what would that have to do with Leon? Yuffie rubbed her forehead. The combination of the heat and her predicament were giving her a headache.

          The door to the little house was open and the light was on—_someone_ was either still in there or had entered in the time she had been gone—perhaps twenty minutes. She poked her head in and saw Zephyr with an ice pack pressed to her forehead as she lay down on the plush sofa.

          "Hey, what's up?" She asked as Yuffie closed the door once she entered. She noticed that her friend's eyes were bloodshot and she looked somewhere between annoyed and shocked and worried.

          "Leon's hungover."

          "Again?" Zephyr lifted herself up as much as she could, then let herself drop. "Ugh… what's up his ass?"

          "I don't know," she stated, and began to rummage through the refrigerator for something to eat. She always ate when she was upset, but ended up working it off later in a run or—

          Zephyr said something, and she wasn't sure she'd heard it right. She poked her head out of the fridge. "Didja say something?"

          "I did."

          "Well, what was it?" She went back to her search for food.

          "I think Riku wants to ask me to marry him."

          At this Yuffie straightened her legs and back to stand straight up, but banged her head _hard_ against the top ledge of the refrigerator. She crossed her eyes briefly, a hand on the injury on her head.

          "What?" She asked through clenched teeth. She reached for a bag of ice from the freezer and put it on the back of her head where she'd smashed it.

          "I think he wants me to marry him," she repeated, cheeks coloring.

          "That's what I thought you'd said," Yuffie nodded.

          "He _knows_ how I feel about that! I know he knows that I've said I never wanted to marry…"

          "Maybe he thinks he can change your mind."

          "Maybe… still, I don't—I'm not sure."

          "Did he ask yet?"

          She shook her head.

          "So you can't really be totally sure, can you?"

          "I dunno, but he's been acting a little weird of late. Although—I don't think he took into account the changing of names."

          "What do you mean?"

          "Like… when women marry, they take their husbands' last names. Only Riku doesn't _have_ a last name. But I _do._ So does that mean if we marry, I drop mine, or he takes _on_ mine?" She asked.

          That's right… Zephyr had a last name—it was Goldeye.

          "I'm not sure… but does that make any difference?"

          "You'd think he'd be embarrassed to be known as Riku Goldeye. It doesn't sound very nice."

          "Zephyr—"

          "What?"

          "Eat something. You'll feel better. And you look like you could use some comfort food." Yuffie offered her a spoon and pushed towards her the half-gallon tub of chocolate ice cream.

          "I suppose you're right," she said, sitting next to her friend and starting on the ice cream. They sat in silence for a moment before Zephyr broke it. "You stayin' here tonight? Or babysitting Leon?"

          "No, I'm staying here."

          Zephyr nodded. She wasn't going home either. She was afraid that if she bumped into Riku again that she would have to give him an answer. She pretty much knew what she wanted, but she didn't know how to tell him.

          Later on that night, Kaze also came to spend the night in the small house. Since there was only one bedroom, two of them shared a bed, and one slept on the sofa. Around midnight, Yuffie got up and went right for the refrigerator. Kaze was already at the table with a bowl of half-melted ice cream.

          "I thought I sensed the freezer opening," the ninja said. She grabbed a spoon and started to eat the ice cream out of its' carton, which Kaze had forgotten to put away, so it was melted a bit.

          "Nice to see you, too," the younger woman grumbled.

          "So why are you hiding here?" Yuffie asked around a mouthful of chocolate. "You never said anything about it, just sorta waltzed in."

          Kaze sighed, a little color coming to her face. Her friend raised her eyebrows. Did _she_ have male trouble, too? She was about to ask just that when they both heard someone walking into the room. It had to be Zephyr, by process of elimination.

          "You couldn't sleep either, huh?" Kaze asked.

          "No," Zephyr drew out the word with sarcasm. "I was sleeping so damn well I thought that I'd try it in the _sink!"_ She looked a little upset. Had she been crying? "What were you guys talkin' about?"

          "I was asking Kaze why she was here," Yuffie said.

          "Hey—why _are_ you here?" Gray eyes narrowed suspiciously.

          "I have a key," she replied with a shrug. She knew that that was not the answer her friend was looking for—she did it out of spite.

          "You dummy."

          "All right, I'll tell you—" she began.

          "Wait, hold on… lemmie guess—Pax," Yuffie stated. She grinned widely when Kaze turned a shade of red.

          "You like him," Zephyr drawled. "Just admit it."

          "I do _not,"_ she banged her fist on the table.

          "Yes you do," Yuffie joined in.

          "No I do _not!"_

          There was a long pause. Finally Zephyr tried again. "You _liiike _him."

          "Head-over-_heels_ in love with him and if you tell him I will hang you alive by your ribs on a meat hook," Kaze threatened, then buried her head in her arms.

          "Yuffie, sweets, this is _your_ arena, not mine," Zephyr said, eyes wide. She had suspected that her friend may have had a crush on Pax, but she _never_ thought that it would prompt her to threaten like _that._

          "But isn't he always hanging over your shoulders?" Yuffie asked.

          "Yes."

          "It's kinda obvious that he likes you back… what's the problem?"

          "I don't _know_ what the problem is—that's my _problem!"_ Kaze rattled Yuffie by her shoulders. She shoved her to the side and looked at Zephyr. "What about you?"

          "What _about_ me?" Her eyes went from side to side.

          "Well, Riku liked you before you hooked up, right?"

          "He'd'a _had_ to if he saw past what everyone said about me," she snorted. "What's yer point?"

          "When'd you hook up?"

          "Two days later on top of a mountain of crates."

          _"That doesn't help me any!"_

          "It wasn't intended to. Looks like you're just gonna hafta confront Pax on your own."

          "I hate you," Kaze growled.

          "Hey, look—if ya want a boyfriend, go to a dating agency. If you want advice—well, then don't come to me," she said with a shrug.

          "That _still_ doesn't help me any!" Kaze yelled.

          "Hey, keep quiet, willya?" Yuffie snapped.

          "Sorry."

          "Still having Squall problems?" Zephyr asked.

          "Yes," she sighed. "I dunno what to do! He's worrying me with all of this."

          "Then why don't you make sure that he can _never_ be alone?" Kaze said.

          "Huh?"

          "Make sure he's never by himself long enough to drink, or to run off and leave you at loose ends for days."

          Yuffie nodded. She understood what Kaze was getting at: if she didn't let Leon alone, then he would stop trying to sneak off. And if he stopped trying to sneak off, then she would be able to wheedle out of him the reason why he was sneaking off to begin with.

"Cloud, I'm pregnant. Cloud, I have something to tell you. Cloud, we need to talk…" Aerith paced back and forth until she thought that her feet would wear down or the floors would crack. She was shivering even though it was grossly hot outside and in. Sweat was beginning to form on her upper lip.

          Her back was to the door, and she didn't know he was coming until he put a hand on her shoulder. She turned around with her eyes wide like a deer in the headlights. When she saw him standing there, she thought she was going to faint.

          "C-Cloud," she stammered. How was it so easy to practice what she would say but when she was faced with him here, her tongue swelled and she couldn't make the words form? "Cloud, I have to—we need… I've gotta tell you something." She managed to spit it out.

          Cloud looked worried. "Aerith, sit down. What's wrong?"

          She looked down. Why was she so nervous about this? She took a deep breath. "Cloud—I'm pregnant."

          She waited for his response, but there was none. She waited a moment longer before looking up, shocked to see _him standing there, mouth open a little, looking __shocked beyond belief._

          "Cloud?" She asked, putting her hand on his cheek. He didn't move. A second later, he was on the floor with a loud _thud. "Cloud!" She fought not to laugh. She didn't know how he was going to take it, and she had just told him—and he'd fainted dead away. She knelt down on the floor and did her best to inspect him to make sure that he hadn't hit his head or suffered an concussion or something like that. He looked all right._

          What now? Aerith didn't know. She rolled him onto their bed and undid his cape to let him cool off. She didn't understand _why_ he wore so much clothing in this heat—maybe that was a factor in his sudden fainting spell. It took nearly a solid ten minutes for him to regain consciousness. He frowned, trying to get the blurry brown-and-purple shape above him into focus. It took him a second to remember that, because the weather was so warm, his wife had begun to wear lighter clothing as opposed to her usual pink dress.

          "Cloud?" He heard her murmur his name. "Cloud, are you all right?"

          He pushed himself up on his elbows to look at her with squinted eyes. "What happened?" He asked. It hadn't registered in his head what had happened.

          "You—you fainted!" Aerith gave up now, and succumbed to a fit of giggles.

Kaze watched from the shop window as Pax got closer and closer to the door. She had spent the night in the small house with Yuffie and Zephyr, to try and console them, but it had merely brought Pax into her thoughts, and she hadn't slept three hours. She yawned widely and went back to work. A few minutes later, she heard the back door open and someone walked in.

          "Hello, Pax," she called. "Cid's not here."

          Pax looked about for the source of the voice. It took him a minute before he thought to look on the floor. "Oh—hello. I thought…" he trailed off and raised his eyebrows. _"Kaze?" He seemed shocked. _

          "Um… yes?" She tilted her head. Vaguely, she wondered why she hadn't seen him since the warmer weather began. Maybe his family lived in the Outer Districts. What he said next answered her question of why he seemed so shocked.

          "I just… didn't really recognize you without your parka," he stammered.

          "My parka?" She creased her brow, and then remembered that they had met a few months ago when the weather was so cold that saliva froze before it hit the sidewalk. "Well whatever—like I said, Cid isn't here."

          "What makes you think that I came by to see him?"

          This comment made Kaze blush furiously. Pax sat down next to her on the floor. Since she had started working there, the shop was much cleaner and one could sit on the floor and not sit in three inches of crud.

          Kaze felt like she was becoming a nervous ball of electricity, with sparks shooting up her back and prickling her scalp. She took in the sight of him out of the corner of her eye… he was tall and freckled, with light skin, much like everybody had, dirty-blonde hair, and light brown eyes and very long eyelashes for a guy…

          "Kaze—"

          "I wasn't staring!" She defended, although she really had no idea what he was going to ask her.

          Light eyebrows shot up.

          "I never said that you were." Pause. "Kaze?"

          "Hm?"

          Pax didn't say anything. Instead he leaned down and kissed her gently. It took a little while for it to register in Kaze's head what he was doing. She moved away quickly.

          "Pax! What are you—how—what just _happened?"_ She felt like an idiot rambling on like this. She frowned.

          "I—I'm sorry." He got up to walk away.

          "Hey, hold up," Kaze said. He turned back and she stumbled up to her feet. She stood in front of him, looking up into his eyes.

          "Hey, Kaze, I was wondering," he swallowed hard. "Would you—go somewhere—go out—" he sounded vaguely like he was going to swallow his tongue.

          "You're asking me out?" Kaze asked, feeling her cheeks get warm.

          "Thank you for articulating that," he said, grinning a little. He, too, was a little pink, though it might just have been from the heat. This time, Kaze started the kiss; neither realized, or perhaps just didn't care, that they were in front of a window where, outside, their friends were watching.

          "Pay up, Kairi," Yuffie said, putting a hand out in front of her friend. Kairi grumbled, reaching into her pockets to pull out a handful of large Munny gems. She counted out fifty Munny and handed it to her.

          "Next time," she said. _"Next_ time, I'll get beat you…" she said, trying to mimic the venomous tone often used by Kaze or Zephyr when they were angered at something. It didn't work. She sighed. "Didn't you say that you weren't letting Leon out of your sight today?"

          Yuffie nodded. "He was asleep last I looked at him, and that was only half an hour ago, although I should probably check back in on him… make sure he din' sneak off again." She bristled slightly. Kaze had given her the idea of not letting Leon have the opportunity to be alone, so that he couldn't sneak off—he wasn't like her in that he made noise when he walked, even when he was trying not to. Maybe if she pestered him about it for a long enough period of time, he would finally spill the beans on why he had been disappearing.

          It wasn't until later that night that they found Zephyr still hiding in the small house, and from the number of drawings scattered around the place, it was safe to assume that she had been there all day and not left the house—although Sandy had been smuggled in some time during the day.

          "Hey, what're you guys doing back here so soon?" She asked, roused from her nap on the sofa when the door slammed.

          "Did you stay here _all day?"_ Yuffie asked. She nodded.

          "You are absolutely pathetic," Kairi told her, sitting down at the table. "Why don't you just talk to him?"

          "What would I say?" Zephyr asked. She crossed her arms over her chest, although she was still on her back on the sofa.

          "I dunno," Kairi said with a shrug.

          "I rest my case," she said with a somewhat triumphant tone.

          The door opened and Kaze came in, declaring, "Don't ask," before anyone could ask her where she had been. Kairi and Yuffie exchanged knowing glances—she had obviously been with Pax.

          "I wasn't going to," Zephyr said calmly. "Siddown. You know Aerith told Cloud she's pregnant, right?"

          "When?" The younger woman sat down.

          "This afternoon," Yuffie said. "From what I hear, he fainted."

          This caused a burst of laughter from everyone. Cloud fainting was entirely unexpected. It was unheard of, really.

          "'Bout time she told him," she snorted.

          "She was _nervous!"_ Yuffie protested, planting her fists on her hips. Then she turned to Zephyr. "Speaking of nervous—Riku didn't stop by here today looking for you did he?" She asked.

          "No… why?" She suddenly looked edgy.

          "You know it's _impossible_ to have a conversation with him now? He's always talking about you and somehow manages to drag _you_ into just about any topic! Says you've been a nervous wreck lately."

          At this comment, Zephyr wrinkled her nose. She was nervous—mostly over the possibility of Riku asking her to marry him, but also because of Leon's behavior. Yuffie was greatly upset about it, and she was her closest friend, so the fact that Yuffie was upset had upset _Zephyr._ She glanced about, looking for help and finding none. Yuffie knew of her predicament from the night before, but she hadn't really told anyone else. She also wasn't sure if Riku had told Kairi anything.

          A nod from Yuffie was all that was needed for her to spill _everything._ Gray eyes watered, and an uncharacteristically shaken Zephyr told them all everything. She started with not ever wanting to marry, and then went on to how much she loved Riku and she would _die_ if she lost him. She sniffled and sobbed before she went on about how she was so scared because she just… didn't know what to do. After she was done, she looked up and waited.

          Nobody said anything for what felt like a very long time. Zephyr regained her self-control and lost her patience waiting for someone to say something.

          "Well, for goodness sake, someone say _something!"_ She cried.

          "Whoa." Kairi's indigo eyes were wide as she sat back in her chair. She knew Zephyr well, and she knew that she loved Riku, but she never knew of all _this._

          "That's all you can think to say?" Kaze growled. She crossed her arms and looked at the ninja seated across the table. "What about you? You know here better'n anyone else."

          Yuffie sighed and thought for a moment. "I guess… whoa," was all she said, shaking her head.

          "Great," the youngest said. "Two replies and not one answer."

          "Okay, Doctor Bedside Manner," Kairi said. "Let's see _you_ try." When Kaze said nothing, she pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Ah-_hah!"_

          "Move that hand or I'll bite that finger off," Kaze said in a venomous voice. "And besides that, I never said I could."

          "None of us can, really," Yuffie said. "This was Aerith's arena—none of ours. Now we kinda have to get on without her. This is gonna be tougher than we thought, too."

          "Aerith won't be any help to us for a long time," Kaze said, sounding stern. "We've gotta learn to solve these problems on our own. She's married now and before she knows it, that baby will be born and we can't pester her with _our_ problems."

          Vaguely, Zephyr wondered if she had failed to receive advice on Pax from Aerith, but she decided to keep her comments to herself. She changed the subject quickly—and consequently, without thinking.

          "Yuffie—did you let Squall alone at all today?" She asked.

          Almost with a grin, Yuffie shook her head. "I got Cloud to babysit him so I could come here though."

          "Isn't he with Aerith?" Kairi asked.

          "No, Aerith went to bed an hour ago."

          "That means she went to bed at _seven!"_ She gaped.

          "The woman's _pregnant,"_ Kaze exploded. "Pregnant women sleep—a _lot."_

          "They eat a lot too," Kairi commented. "I've never known her to eat that much."

          "She's eating for two, now," Kaze snorted.

          "Who?" Yuffie joked. "Cid Highwind and a Fat Bandit Heartless?" Kaze gave her a good whack. Her friend put a hand on her bruised arm and sighed. "I knew that was a mistake the second it left my mouth."

          Everyone else was busy laughing.

          "Look, kid, you know we're not letting you go 'til you tell us what you've been doing and why you've been raiding my safe-deposit box," Cid growled around a cigarette. Cloud had brought Leon into the now-closed Accessory Shop. Cid had been waiting there, along with Riku and Sora. It was then that Leon figured that he was cornered.

          "Whatcha mean?" He asked, trying to play dumb to get out of this.

          "Don't play stupid, Leon, we know your tricks," Sora told him, grabbing a chair and sitting on it backwards. "Besides, who d'you think taught you the 'act dumb' trick?"

          He sighed heavily. Why could he never get away with anything? Maybe Yuffie was right, and he really _was_ a bad actor.

          "If Yuffie's gonna ask me to babysit you, the least you can do is tell me _why_ she's making me," Cloud added, standing behind the swordsman with his arms crossed, looking threatening.

          "Shouldn't you be with Aerith?" Riku asked.

          "She's been going to bed before eight lately," was the reply. "Now _talk,_ dammit!"

          "Okay, okay, okay," Leon swatted at Cloud. "Just gimmie back my personal space." He scooted back a few feet. "Hey, wait a second—why do I have to tell you guys anyway? It's my business!"

          "Because Yuffie told me to babysit for you. Because you can't be left alone. And because I'll _pummel_ you if you don't!" Cloud yelled.

          "Uh… why else?" Leon was leaning back almost completely off the sofa.

          "Now, _Squall!"_ He growled, getting right into his face. [A/N: Ice Age.]

          "All right!" He gave Cloud a good shove and straightened. "Yuck, you need a mint."

          "Shutup."

          "All right…" Pause. "I wanna ask Yuffie to marry me."

          No one spoke. Riku had been sitting on a table, and as if on cue, it collapsed beneath his weight and dumped him on the floor.

          "Oh, come _on_ it isn't _that_ shocking!"

          "So that's why you've been sneakin' off?" Cid asked. Leon only nodded.

          "Man, and I always thought _Cid_ was a doofus," Sora said.

          "Hey!"

          "The only possible reason I can think of for him to be sneaking off is to buy a ring, and I can't see Leon, of all people, doing that."

          "You mean like this one?" Leon pulled a small box out of his jacket pocket. A pale gold ring with a ruby set in it glistened.

          "What—hey, where'd you get that?" Sora asked, leaning the chair forward on two legs so that he could see the ring better.

          "Where do you _think,_ dummy?" Riku swatted him. To Leon, he asked, "Why haven't you asked her yet?"

          "Because I 'ave no idea how to," was the simple reply.

          "Oh…" Riku nodded. "I get it."

          "Could always propose in bed," Cid suggested, leaning nonchalantly against the wall nearby.

          _"What?"_ Sora turned on the two legs of the chair, causing the wood to snap. He fell face-down on the floor.

          "I dun think that'll work," Cloud said.

          "Now, wait a sec, that actually _could_ work," Leon trailed off deep in thought.

          "No it won't," the blonde said. "Trust me."

          "So what'm I supposed to do then?" He threw his hands in the hair, as if admitting defeat.

          "You'll think of something."

          "What about you, Riku?" Sora asked his friend, changing the subject. "Why haven't I seen Zephyr anywhere? You guys have a fight or somethin'?"

          "No," Riku sighed, looking down at the mess he had made when the table collapsed earlier. "She's just been a nasty nervous wreck."

          "Why? What'd you do?"

          "Are you actually concerned about her? I thought you guys couldn't _stand_ each other," Riku said.

          "We can't—I wanna know what you did so that _I_ can do it so she'll leave me alone."

          "You guys can't _possibly_ still hate each other!" Cloud snapped.

          "Wanna bet?" Sora and Riku said at the same moment.

          "So what happened?" Cid asked.

          "I think she's just nervous that I might ask her to marry me," the silver-haired man said.

          "Why would she be nervous about that?" Cloud asked, confused.

          Riku looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You can't tell me that you've never heard her say that she never wants to marry."

          "She used to say that all the time, but I never thought she'd _still_ have that sentiment now that she's been with _you_ for six years."

          "Why? Have you ever known Zephyr to change her mind about anything?" He crossed his arms.

          "Only when you've been involved," Sora told him. "Why don't you tell her that you aren't going to ask her?"

          "Because what if that's _not_ what she's upset about?" He sighed. "I dunno, what would _you_ do?" He asked no one in particular.

          Cloud put a hand on his shoulder. "Avoid being you at all costs."

          Leon was heading for the door.

          "Hey, kid, where're you going?" Cid called after him.

          "To find Yuffie," he said, and with that he left.

"Where are you taking me?" Yuffie asked, shifting on Leon's back to get more comfortable. She hadn't wanted to leave her room, but Leon had come up and asked her—_begged_ her—to come with him somewhere, but he wouldn't tell her where. She had been upset with him still and told him that if he wanted her to go anywhere, he would have to physically pick her up and take her there himself. She hadn't actually expected him to do it—but he did.

          "I told you—it's a surprise," he said, shifting his arms beneath her legs when she moved. He made his way through the channels that led into the Waterway behind the hotel. Both were silent as he sloshed up to his waist in the water, and then up onto dry land. Once they were fairly deep in the cavern, he let her slide down to the ground, then turned to face her.

          "What are we doing here?" Was the first thing she asked, looking around. The waterway was humid and close, but mercifully cooler than the rest of the outdoors. She glanced up at him and saw a look in his eyes that she had never really seen there before. It made her heart pound inside her chest and she vaguely wondered how he managed to do this with only a look.

          "Yuffie," he took her hands in his; even through his gloves, she could feel that his hands were cold. He went on. "You know I love you. You were what kept me going through Kingdom Hearts and the FearFeeders… I'd die for you, Yuffie."

          A sort of anxious excitement pierced Yuffie through the chest. She met his eyes squarely, and said nothing. She heard him take a deep breath.

          "Yuffie will you marry me?" He asked softly.

          Slowly, a smily crept across the ninja's lips and she threw herself at him; somehow, he maintained his balance on the wet stones. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you idiot, _yes!"_ She squealed, hugging him very tightly and kissing his neck over and over.

          Leon laughed, maneuvering the box in his pocket to get the ring out, and then leaning away from Yuffie a little bit so he could get at her hand.

          "Good—cuz now you can have this," he told her, sliding the ring onto her finger. She gasped, looking from Leon to the ring now on her finger and back again.

          "Squall—when did you _get_ this?" She asked. When he said nothing, she fit the pieces together by herself. "Then why did you scare me like that?"

          "You said it yourself." He drew forward to nuzzle her neck.

          "Said what?" She pulled away to look at him with her head tilted to the side like a confused puppy.

          "I'm an idiot."

          This made Yuffie grin. "But you're _my _idiot," she said, leaning in and kissing him. "I love you, I love you, I love you…" she whispered. It seemed unreal—they were getting married. Finally. After the events of Kingdom Hearts, the countless fights they'd had, and the years they had been together, they were getting married.

Finally.

***

Sneaking into her apartment, Zephyr hoped that she would be there before Riku was. The apartment was dark, so she thought that she had gotten lucky. Two seconds after she closed the door, she heard a voice and she knew she'd been caught red-handed.

          "Hey, Zehyr," Riku closed the door and stood in front of it, blocking her escape. She turned towards him, looking very guilty and very nervous, but something in his eyes stopped her from darting out the back windows. She looked behind her and found a chair to sit in.

          "Yes?" She said in a soft voice, nearly a whisper.

          "Hey, calm down. I know what you're nervous about," he said, coming to stand next to her with his hand resting on her shoulder. Her eyes went wide.

          "If Kairi or Kaze told you, I'll skin 'em!" She whispered in a harsh voice.

          "I put the pieces together by myself," he said. "And for the record, I'm just as nervous as you are."

          So he _wasn't_ going to ask her. Obsessing over it for weeks was for nothing. She felt incredibly stupid and stood up, taking a few steps away from him.

          "Zeph—"

          "Do you love me?"

          "What?" He looked more confused that she felt. "Of course I do."

          "Are you angry at me?"

          "No… why would I be?"

          "Because I was so stupid about it…" she sighed, looking down. "Forgive me?"

          "I wasn't mad at you… just confused by you."

          She moved fast and clasped her hands around his waist. "I love you, Riku," she whispered. "Promise me something."

          He nodded.

          "Promise that if I ever do this again, you'll slap me."

          "I'll have Yuffie do it."

          "Okay." She was silent for a moment. "Promise me something else."

          "Sure."

          "Promise me you'll never die."

                                                                                                             ~*~

Holy cow. Okay, I think this was the dumbest one that I have ever written. I think I have done so much better. But I had to get this posted because you've waited long enough, so I posted it. The magic is gone, though, because I have totally run out of ideas for Kaze, Zephyr, Yuffie, Aerith and the rest. This is really the last chapter of Paint The Sky With Stars. I hope you all liked Zephyr's saga as much as I did.

Love always,

The VL

~~This story is dedicated to Ellyrianna, JaguarKitty, and Snowri Leonheart, the very creator of all things Leon/Yuffie.~~           


	8. And Then The Author Cried

Since I was rushed yesterday when I posted my last chapter, I didn't get to write my proper "Thank Yous" and whatnot. Stupid brother…

Anyway! Here is a list of my thank yous, followed by a message from good 'ole VL herself.

(Just imagine the credits rolling up the screen like they do at the ends of movies…)

Character Design: Squaresoft & Walt Disney Studios

Kaze Design: the Vulpes Lapis

Zephyr Design: the Vulpes Lapis

Story Title "Paint The Sky With Stars": Enya

Technical Support: the guy next door who came and fixed the computer when it kept freezing up.

No Thanks To: Comcast, who keeps screwing up my Internet connection.

~~~

~***Special Thanks***~

Everyone who reviewed from the beginning of "Other Halves":

QwickSilver

MeowMix2

Jaguar Kitty2006

Snowri Leonheart

Ellyrianna

Star-Lancer

Everyone who reviewed from the beginning of _this_ story:

Snowri Leonheart

Kaiiki Taiseiyou

Ellyrianna

Jaguar Kitty2006

MeowMix2

Annjirika

Thanks to the two people who have Riku/Zephyr listed on their "Favorite Pairs" list:

BroncosCheer-literofpepsy

QwickSilver

And a special thanks to you, because you bothered to read my story in the first place… thank you muchly.

~~~

That about wraps it up. Now for a note from the Author, whom all love and adore. *Death Glare* _RIGHT??_

I totally ran dry for ideas for Zephyr and riku, as well as for everyone else. It made me pretty sad. So I had to end this story here. What sadder is that all of this writing for the past year has made my brain hurt immensely. So, regretfully, I am taking a hiatus from writing FanFiction—but that doesn't mean I won't be about to review other people's! It's just that I have to pull my grades up or else I get the computer taken away. *sob* And my English teacher has a box full of My Little Ponies that I have to get an A in her class to get… *drools* But whatever reasons I give, here is where I must leave you. And although this may sound a little weird and even egotistical, but if anybody wants to write using Zephyr or Kaze, they are more than welcome to do so. I would be honored if anyone did. *bows*

Love, luck, and never any Writer's Block,

The Vulpes Lapis


End file.
